Senior Presidential Advisor on Media and Publication relations, John Nagenda has said the police’s continued use of thugs to beat up civilians is unbecoming and aims at tarnishing the image of government.
Writing in his weekly column dubbed ‘One Man’s Week’ in the Saturday Vision, Mr Nagenda who is known for his sharp words said Uganda; police under the leadership of Gen. Kale Kaihura had built a reputation that was being emulated world over but the increasingly use of thugs is destroying the efforts that had been gained.
“Our police and allied departments have built up an enviably solid reputation especially in Africa, but even beyond. They have borrowed by outside countries as trainers and advisors. It is for the this reason that my heart sinks every time they seemingly work with thugs in thugs’ clothing and armed with thugs’ equipment (whips, axe handles and the like) apparently to keep peace. My foot show me the company you keep and I can tell who you are” Nagenda wrote.
Adding “The question I have is: Why do the police take this risk? It may well be that where the rascally elements do their business the only language they understand is brutality: So you give that to them?”
Nagenda says it soils the image of the authority and that it plants in the citizens minds especially the youth that one has to be nasty in order to earn respect.
“But if the authorities both in police and government don’t stop this dirty habits, let the judiciary step in and stop it for onec and for all. It will also inform one and all that brutish behavior is savage and unacceptable”
Mr. Nagenda’s comments on masked goons that later turn up at Nakawa court beating Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) supporters and who Police publicist Fred Enanga admitted are police informants.
This week at Nakawa Magistrate Court were Dr Besigye was supposed to face a committal hearing, similar men were seen in the vicinity. These men parked their van nearby and later pulled out their sticks as they disembarked out of their vehicle. They eventually roughed up people resulting in the arrest of FDC Secretary for Mobilization Ingrid Turinawe. The police now say these men are informants in the force.
“There are not police officers but they are always informant. They are operatives who supply us with local intelligence and community intelligence which we use to get what is happening in a particular community.” Enanga said.
Nagenda in the same column didn’t have kind words for Vice President, Edward Sekandi saying by donning a multicoloured coat at the State of the Nation address, saying it was a blazer.
“In photos I thought the President had eyed his Vice with a somewhat beady eye at the opening of the new Parliament. Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Sekandi, for his part, was encased in a multicoloured garment, which in photos looked as if it might swallow him to death, with seemingly white ribbons down its side: which turned out as stripes. None of this is nice” Nagenda wrote.
