The Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs

The budget includes sh304b to support the Police’s crime intelligence gathering, sh370.6b for wages and sh263b for non-wage or non-pecuniary activities.

To seek approval for their proposed budgets, Police and the Prisons Services senior officials appeared before the Parliamentary Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs chaired by Sheema district Woman MP, Rosemary Nyakikongoro.

The said parliamentary committee is a select committee mandated by Parliament to oversee the activities and programmes of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Uganda Police Force and the Uganda Prisons Service.

The Inspector General of Police, Martin Okoth Ochola, and the Commissioner General of Prisons, Dr Johnson Byabashaija, made up a three-person delegation that met the committee while led by the Internal Affairs minister, Maj. Gen. (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire, who superintends and coordinates their varying activities.

Members of Parliament on the committee heard that the police are not getting their due in terms of budgetary allocations. For instance, the Force requires sh304b annually for crime intelligence gathering, but has been receiving sh42.7b; a shortfall of sh261b.

Police have often complained that their work requires much more funding than what is usually available to it.

On average, it has been revealed, the Criminal Investigations Department needs at least Shs 2.1 million to complete investigations into capital offences like murder, fraud, robbery, defilement and rape.

Allied to this, at least Shs. 105billion is required to handle about 50,000 capital offences annually.

The Tororo North MP, Geoffrey Ekanya, who belongs to the opposition party Forum for Democratic Change, said the police should work towards enhancing the welfare of a police officer’s family.

Only last year, police appealed to parliament to increase its budget towards shoring up the Force’s residential and office buildings.

At the time, the then Internal Affairs minister, Obiga Kania, told MPs on the Defence and Internal affairs Committee that 40,000 officers did not have accommodation which they are entitled to.