Former Director General of the External Security Organisation (ESO), David Pulkol has urged the Uganda Law Society (ULS) to cancel the law practicing certificate of the Inspector General of Police, General Kale Kayihura.
According to Pulkol, Kayihura, a lawyer with a Masters Degree, is not fit to practice law after he publicly paraded suspects linked to the recent murders in Masaka.
“If we indeed have a Law Council in the country, it should cancel his (Kayihura’s) practicing certificate. How can a lawyer be the one violating the law. Police has become the judges? Totally unprofessional. You can’t just do silly things like that,” Pulkol fumed as he appeared on NTVs ‘On the Spot’ programme.
“If police was parading successful operations in society, then people would be happy but parading suspects?” he charged.
Responding to Pulkol, the spokesperson of Kampala Metropolitan police, Emilian Kayima defended his boss, saying he never said the paraded suspects were criminals.
“The IGP was categorical. He said, these are not criminals but people we are suspecting,” said Kayima.
It turned out Kayihura was following the show on TV and he was the first caller, protesting why he had not been invited to defend himself on the show.
“Security should be handled in a historical context. I would like that the panel also looks at the past successful situations while discussing. You should not just judge, consider the past successes. And we are also making progress,” he said, adding: “This is not the Pulkol I know, he has transformed radically.”
However, responding to Kayihura, Pulkol said: “You are also not the Kayihura I knew. I knew you as a Cpt, Major…..to Gen but I never knew you to be this blind.”
Security expert and former police officer, Fred Egesa said that by parading suspects, “the police wants to look very smart before Museveni”.
Kayima admitted the law enforcement agency is facing challenges but added, “we cannot afford to lose hope.”
“Tell me any country which is completely free from these challenges? It is a continuous process to ensure that men in uniform do what they are mandated to do. It is work in progress. But it should start with you, do you even know the phone number of the OC in your area?” Kayima challenged. He pointed out the problem of youth unemployment as one of the biggest threats to national security.
“Almost all those arrested (in the recent crimes in Masaka) are youths. So many youths leave villages for towns but what do they do for a living? I have always talked about the issue of the youth. We need to be more responsive as citizens,” he said.
However, he was advised by Egesa that as a professional policeman, rather than complain about youth unemployment, they needed to put their house in order.
“As police, your mandate is to keep law and order. Deal with that. Forget about the youth challenges.”
As for Pulkol, he said that sometimes he is tempted to “tell Kayihura to resign, buy a big TV screen then watch how the country is run.”
Kayihura came under fire this week for parading before media youths suspected to have been behind the crime in the Greater Masaka region. They indeed confessed to committing the crimes, but also claimed they were being protected by police.
