The Territorial Police in KMP/North in coordination with the Professional Standards Unit, has two police officers in custody, for withdrawing from duty without permission, to execute, civil matters. The officers who included; PC Wako Michael and PC Bwire Kevin, both attached to Kawempe Police Station, left their beat, after they were hired by a one Nsubuga Richard, to go and arrest his father, Mubiru Haruna in Mpigi, over a civil matter pertaining to his father’s wealth. They were arrested on the 30.10.2022, by the OC Nakirebe Police Station, after they presented a police reference from Katwe police station 63/27/10/2023, that was connected, and detained for professional misconduct and abuse of authority.
As we start the year 2023, the public should not only expect, but also deserve to have trust and confidence in the police. When such police officers, abuse their position for selfish gains, particularly in respect of vulnerable persons, such behaviour represents a fundamental betrayal of the public and the values for which the police service stands.
The leadership of the police has strongly condemned such reprehensible behaviour, which can never be justified or condoned, since it is an act of abuse of office and corruption. Those who abuse their position have no place in the service. What is encouraging through, is that the vast majority of our officers, consistently conduct themselves in accordance with our high standards.
The UPF has a policy on corruption and standing orders which gives proper emphasis to our principle desire to prevent such behaviours from occurring. It also sets out the means by which, we will improve our collective approaches to the utilisation of proactive tactics to better gather intelligence, identity corrupt and indisciplined individuals and vigorously pursue and remove them from the service, for the benefit of the public and the police as well.
In light of the actions of the two police officers, we call upon all police officers going out on duty, to explain themselves and always reassure the public of who they are, what they are doing and why. Police officers always carry IDs and book out formally on duty, with the permission of their superiors.
This new year, we pledge to effectively implement the policy and standing orders to combat such serious forms of misconduct and exploitation abuse that erode public confidence and trust in the police.
Source: Uganda Police Force