The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Thomas Tayebwa has urged the government to address the persistent police welfare concerns for Uganda to build an effective criminal justice system.
Receiving a research report that the Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) conducted on the working and living conditions of the police personnel, the Deputy Speaker said under-resourced police force reduces the capacity of the personnel to prevent and investigate crime.
“If we are to reform the Justice, Law and Order Sector, and reform the criminal justice system in this country, we can’t do it just by appointing more judges we were doing it because the judges need to be served. At first, we appointed the judges, but there was a gap in prosecutors. So now we have looked at prosecutors and last financial year, we exempted their salaries from taxes which was a very big boost to the prosecution side. But now we need to look at the investigation side,” the Deputy Speaker said on Thursday, February 8, 2024.
Presenting the finding, Ms. Mariam Wangadya, the Chairperson of the Uganda Human Rights Commission said their research found that generally, the living and working conditions of UPF personnel were wanting, and in some cases, it was to extreme, unimaginable levels.
The report indicated that Personnel had to individually foot the cost of their relocation, regardless of the process or factors for deployment or transfer.
Regarding salary, both the professional and non-professional categories stated that the salary was too low and inadequate to match the increasing cost of living and their welfare.
The findings also showed that delays in processing retirement, pension, and gratuity, caused by bureaucracy and irregularities despite a well-laid retirement scheme, were causing a lot of frustration to some retired personnel.
