The police force is mandated to serve the state not the regime

Vincent Nuwagaba

At last the president has come out clear on what the Inspector General of Police has often denied. The Daily Monitor, Thursday 21 April 2011 quoted the president as saying, “I want to thank IGP because he has shown that he is a true cadre of NRM and others like Kafero”. The president reportedly added “they have shown that they are true disciples of NRM. I wish all leaders were like them in reaching the citizens”.

As an NRM cadre the IGP is preoccupied with defending the regime and not the state. My question is, can we have a police force that is non-partisan; a force that is obligated to defend the state and not the regime? The police have always said that they have a right to use reasonable force. Why use force against people who are expressing their disenchantment peacefully. Article 211(d) of the constitution says, the police force shall be nationalistic, patriotic, professional, disciplined, competent, and productive. And its members shall be citizens of good character”. What we have instead is a partisan police force hell-bent on defending the regime at any cost. In the wake of the launch of the Activists for Change (A4C) campaign, the Inspector General of Police said on air that Besigye wants to overthrow the regime. He has often maintained that Besigye should decide whether to tow the constitutional path or choose to fight the way Kony has done. Surprisingly, the person the Inspector General of Police says wants to oust the regime has been walking unarmed. We risk sliding into the abyss of the state of nature according to Thomas Hobbes where life is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” and we are witnessing “the war of every man against every man”.

The role of the police is not to give or deny permission to anybody intending to exercise their rights. The Inspector General of Police has arrogated himself the power to give and take rights; let him give us a catalogue of the rights that opposition leaders are free to enjoy and those that they should never even dream of. Historical, celebrated world icons such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. used nonviolence to attain their goals. Does General Kayihura want the opposition to adopt revolutionary violence to attain their objectives? How should the opposition express their dissent with the ruling party?

The walk-to-work campaign doesn’t directly benefit the opposition leaders because all of them can afford to lead a decent life style whether or not commodity prices rise. The campaign, however, benefits the poorest of the poor who cannot live in dignity because of the austere conditions they are subjected to emanating from high commodity prices; lack of drugs in health centres; miserable salaries for the workers; unaffordable university fees; permanent joblessness for those without political godfathers and outright theft and misappropriation of public funds. Other than blocking the opposition leaders from showing solidarity with the subalterns, the government should address these issues.
Norbert Mao who reported a case of criminal trespass against a security operative that has been masquerading as a journalist is now in jail. It is during the tenure of the current police leadership that many innocent people have ended up in jail. Those who have no access to lawyers are convicted. It is unfortunate that today criticism is taken to be sabotage and opposition is deemed to be treason. Finally, the police must serve the state not merely the regime. Right now it is used to brutalise the opponents of the regime which is unfortunate.

Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights defender