Hon. Sekabira
Hon. Kiryowa Kiwanuka
The Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. Ephraim Kamuntu has said that suspects arrested by any security agency will be held in gazetted places of detention and processed in accordance with the law.
Articles 23 and 28 of the Constitution guarantee personal liberty and outline specific protections regarding the arrest, detention and trial of suspects.
“The issue of law in arresting suspects must be respected. We should do things in accordance with the law,” he said adding that, ’Uganda Police Force will work with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Judiciary to expedite murder trials. Unnecessary granting of police bonds and court bails will be discouraged; emphasis will be to push suspects to Court for trial’.
The minister made these remarks while presenting a statement on some security incidents in specific districts of the country and measures that have been taken to address them.
He presented the statement during the plenary sitting on Wednesday, 04 November 2026.
Kamuntu said that the community policing model will be accelerated, wherein, every sub-county will have 18 police personnel, three motorcycles, a toll-free counter phone, intelligence gathering, community engagement and rapid response.
“Murder hotspots, motives, victims and recurring crime patterns will be mapped and analysed. Crime statistics and a study of regional crime patterns will guide the deployment of personnel and resources,” he said.
According to the minister, Uganda is largely secure except for a few isolated criminal activities caused by land conflicts, property and inheritance disputes, poverty and economic stress, alcohol and drug abuse and violence linked to criminal gangs, and repeat offenders, among others.
The Leader of the Opposition, Hon. Joel Ssenyonyi applauded the move to ensure that suspects are detained in gazetted centres but quickly added that several suspects are still being held illegally and should be released or tried in court.
“I want to believe that is a commitment he [minister] is making but he should begin by apologising because his statement acknowledges that some people have been detained in ungazetted detention facilities,” he said.
The Shadow Minister of Internal Affairs, Hon. Denes Sekabira cast doubt on government’s commitment towards accelerating community policing, citing a funding gap.
“I am a member of Defence and Internal Affairs Committee, where the Inspector General of Police reported that government had allocated Shs50 billion towards the programme against a projected requirement of Shs249 billion,” Sekabira said.
The funding gap, Ssekabira said, demonstrates that there is a substantial gap between government’s security commitment and the resources available to implement the programmes.
“I request the Minister to provide the number of sub-counties that have fully operationalised this model,” he said.
The Minister of Defence and Veteran Affairs, Hon. Kiryowa Kiwanuka said that to address the financial constraints, the Uganda Police Force is rationalising the available resources.
“With the resources that we have, we are doing a mapping exercise to determine which areas need to be beefed up with police officers as soon as possible,” he said.
Hon. Dan Atwijukire (NRM, Kazo County) raised concern over the poor facilitation of the community police officers and called for a solution to the recurring challenge adding that officers in charge of sub-counties receive monthly fuel facilitation of Shs50,000.
“Most of the motorcycles were grounded. As we try to fight crime, we need to look into these issues of facilitating police officers,” he said-Ug. Parliament. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
