By KT Reporter
Barely a week ago, the Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID), headed by Maj Tom Magambo, arrested and prosecuted the Commissioner for police human resources, Eldard Mugume, for abuse of office following reports of unscrupulous recruitment.
Although Mugume’s offences emanated from the 2013 recruitment, there have been several indicators of ghost or suspicious recruitment numbers in the police force for more than 10 years, and this has often made the force contradict or cast doubt on its actual numbers.
First, in 2015, police advertised 500 positions for Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police (C/ASP), but to the country’s shock, the police revealed that the records showed 1,100 had completed the Cadet course in 2016.
This red flag prompted the Inspector General of Government – IGG- to investigate the recruitment of an additional 600 Cadets. But since then, General Edward Kale Kayihura was the Inspector General of Police –IGP, the IGG did not reportedly have access to the necessary information, which could have unearthed the irregularities in the recruitment process.
Barely two years later, President Yoweri Museveni dropped Kayihura and replaced him with his deputy, Martin Okoth Ochola. In his handover report of March 15, 2018, Gen Kayihura informed Ochola and his deputy, then Brig Gen Stephen Muzeeyi Sabiiti, that he had left the force with more than 46,000 personnel.
Gen Kayihura boasted that he had transformed the police force from a 14,000-personnel force to nearly four times its original size in his 12 years. “I’m handing over a Police Force that is much better than the one I found. I leave the force after 12 + years of intense activity with lots of optimism for the future of our country. I want to apologise to whoever I stepped on to forgive me, whatever I did was for the good of our country,” he added.
However, the first red flag in the numbers mentioned by Gen Kayihura came in 2020, which was only two years after his departure. An audit was done towards the passing out of 4,809, and the outcomes showed that the force numbers stood at only 41,000.
Ochola went ahead and informed President Yoweri Museveni that the force records, including 4,809 recruits, stood at 46,614. “…the Uganda Police Force is successfully passing out all the 4,809 trainees, courtesy of Your Excellency’s endless guidance. Continuous growth in strength; currently, the Force’s strength stands at 46,614 against a population of 41,638,636, giving a ratio of 1:893,” Ochola said.
This revelation left many in the police circles wondering where the 5,000 police personnel had gone in two years, yet there is no record that the force had ever had ever retired of more than 1,000 retirements in a year. Because of the less numbers despite the passing out of 4,809 recruits, Ochola informed Museveni that they need more than 3000 as soon as possible in order to match the policing needs.
“This reaffirms the need for recruitment of an additional 2,000-3,000 personnel annually to counter attrition and attain the much-needed growth in numbers. Your Excellency, I also report with satisfaction that a total of 1,128 female recruits out of 4,809 have finished the course with their male counterparts. This is yet another manifestation of your commitment to ensuring equal opportunities to all sections of our population,” Ochola added.
Museveni probably listened to Ochola’s outcry and authorised the recruitment of more than 5,000 police personnel, and these were passed out in 2023. This put the police numbers at nearly 50,000 people, meaning in a year, only about 1,000 had retired.
“Numerically, the Force will now have a staff strength of 49,928 personnel against a population of 43 million. This appears pleasant, but still, falls below the internationally recognised ratio of 1:500. This reaffirms the need for urgent recruitment and training,” Ochola said at the second pass out during his tenure.
The fact that only 1000 police personnel had retired or resigned between 2022 and 2023 raises questions about how 5,000 had disappeared between 2018 and 2020, as per the numbers that had been provided by Gen Kayihura.
As a response to these questions, Ochola directed a fresh physical head count at Naguru police headquarters and the regional headquarters. It was later revealed that more than 2,700 police officers’ whereabouts were mysterious.
Uganda Radio Net (URN) reported that more than 2700 ghost police officers were revealed by Ochola’s headcount directive. This attracted Parliament’s attention, and it was revealed that more than 921 million shillings had been paid to non-existent police personnel.
Parliament’s interest came weeks after the media reports and the Auditor General report, which revealed that more than 17,000 police workers had inconsistencies in their names, National Identification Number (NIN), birthdates and gender.
The Auditor General’s report of 2024 indicated that there were more than 10,000 ghost civil servants. In response to the Auditor General’s report, Museveni directed CID director Maj Magambo to probe who was benefiting from ghost workers.
The ongoing investigations into ghost workers are the reasons why Commissioner Mugume was arrested and prosecuted. It is not yet clear how far Maj Magambo’s CID would go and who will follow Mugume if the investigations are cast wide.
-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
