The Pornography Control Committee (PCC) has trained over 200 police officers in the Kampala Metropolitan area since the start of the year 2021.
The PCC is comprised of officials from various key government departments including but not limited to the following; Ministry of Gender, Labour & Social Development, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, the Creative Arts Industry and representatives from the cultural Institutions in Uganda.
There is a Multi-Sectoral Task Team where other stakeholders are incorporated and as a result, join hands with the others to deliver this service of fighting and eradicating pornography in Uganda. The Uganda Police Force is part of this team.
The PCC has systematically carried out sensitization and awareness programs on the Anti-Pornography Act, 2014 using various community-based initiatives as well as media programs.
However, the team found it appropriate to give strategic and focused training to police officers. It started with the following areas; Mukono and Naggalama, Kira Road, CID Headquarters Kibuli and Kampala North based at Kawempe plus officers from Savanah region, in Luwero District.
In total, over 200 police officers have received this training and pledged to be ambassadors in the fight against the vice. They were armed with the contents of the law, supplied with copies of the Ant-Pornography Act 2014, and mobilized to fight pornography with the same zeal they apply fighting against other crimes.
It was rightly noted that many people naively watch pornography thinking that it is an act of passing time, or, an avenue that will help them to improve their sex life yet it cripples it as it is addictive, depressing, destructive, and deadly most of the time.
It could be a source of many other heinous crimes including rape and defilement, drug use and abuse, and murder. Officers, especially those from CID were guided to look beyond the crime being investigated to incorporate a possibility of porn involved.
The SOCOs, CID, and Crime Intelligence officers were to take kin interest in their respective roles of administering justice. Therefore, police officers trained in the fight against pornography included Unit Commanders (Uniformed and territorial commanders), CID officers, Community Liaison Officers (CLOs) and Child and Family Protection Officers (CFPUs).
The intention was clear; to create awareness among the rank and file and among the communities police interface with daily, each in their respective capacities. Obviously, Police conduct hundreds of thousands of community-based programs in schools, in communities like markets, the transport industry, and many others.
Similarly, Police interface with many people including clients that visit us at the office, and those they meet as we transact normal policing activities. They also have families that are fertile grounds for mobilization.
It was therefore clear that pornography as a crime entails the production of pornographic materials, trafficking in the same, publishing and broadcasting such materials and procuring them, exporting and importing, selling and abetting.
Police officers appreciated the contents of the Anti-Pornography Act 2014 and vowed to aggressively support the fight against the crime that is right amidst us all.
“Families and communities are faced with many crimes and rarely do we connect the dots to find the role pornography is playing in this. The heart and soul of any nation must never be destroyed by challenges we have come to know their grave effects like pornography….” said Dr. Annette K. Kezaabu, chairperson to the PCC.
The Committee was hosted by the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity from the Office of the President. PCC recently paid a courtesy call on AIGP Edward Ochom, Director Operations, UPF who was happy to receive them. In that meeting; he pledged total support of the activities of the Committee.
The Uganda Police was represented by SSP Emilian Kayima, who is a member of the Multi-Sectoral Task Team, linking police to the PCC and their operations.
