SOROTI: The AIGP Andrew Sorowen, the Director Welfare, Production and Sports has on November 15 officially commissioned the East Kyoga Regional Police Headquarters in Soroti City. The building was constructed by the Police Construction Unit, that has gained more skills and expertise overtime.
The welfare of Police officers in the Uganda Police Force (UPF) continues to pose a challenge. Among the key welfare concerns, is the question of insufficient residential and office accommodation for the Police staff.
To address this challenge, AIGP Sorowen has prioritized the welfare of police personnel by embarking on construction of police headquarters, police stations and residential buildings also referred to as barracks.
AIGP Sorowen in September 20121, also commissioned Bukedea police station and a residential building to house police officers at the station. These stations and headquarters are put in place to aid policing activities and more so improve the welfare and working conditions of police officers.
Despite the regular attention given to severe shortage of accommodation for Uganda’s police, the situation is not improving since in some barracks, most families are sharing small rooms in housing units, including uniports, which are in most cases in a sorry state. The hygienic conditions in most of the places of accommodation are also awful, characterized by old faulty sewerage and water systems, and absence of a systematic garbage disposal mechanism. Old water and sewerage pipes contribute to huge utility bills through leakages and bursts and poor electrical installations in the UPF barracks also escalate utility bills, and accidents through electrocution and death of people in the barracks as stated in the VALUE FOR MONEY AUDIT REPORT ON THE MANAGEMENT OF ACCOMMODATION BY THE UGANDA POLICE FORCE Prepared by Office of the Auditor General in 2016.
Human rights defender Dr. Livingstone Sewanyama, Executive Director, Foundation for Human Rights Initiative recently criticized government for failing to consider police housing a priority. Other Human Rights activists called it a human rights violation adding that no wonder sometimes police officers act inhumanely when they are dealing with the public.
Insufficient residential and office accommodation for the Police staff is instigated by increased police employment and growing families. Failure to match recruitment and transfer of staff with housing requirements, poor workmanship of some construction projects, delayed construction works, cost overruns and variations which erode the available resources meant for construction work and impair the achievement of construction targets are also contributing factors.
Recently, the Police Force passed out 5,200 police officers.
To solve the challenges, government has allocated funds for improving housing and working conditions, and tapping on internal resources of police officers as a source of labor for constructing more houses in the barracks and work spaces like police stations and headquarters.
“These developments are part of the implementation plans to continuously grow and improve policing services as well as the welfare and working conditions of our officers throughout the country,” said AIGP Sorowen during the commissioning of Bukedea police station in September.