Inspector General of Police Martins Okoth Ochola
The Inspector General of Police, Martin Ochola, has transferred 460 detectives who had overstayed at various police stations in the Kampala Metropolitan Area. Most of the transferred investigators had stayed at the same police stations for five to 12 years.
A message signed by Commissioner of Police-CP Emmanuel Muheirwe, on behalf of IGP Ochola, has moved over 60 percent of detectives at traditional police stations, among others, Kampala Central Police Station-CPS, Old Kampala Police, Wandegeya, Kawempe, Jinja Road, Kira, and Katwe police stations to upcountry stations.
The transferred detectives are: nine at the rank of Inspector of Police (IP), 30 Assistant Inspectors of Police (AIP), 71 Sergeants, 81 Corporals, and the rest are Constables. Ochola has made sure no one is deployed within Kampala metropolitan. They have been sent to upcountry places and replaced by detectives from faraway areas like Karamoja, Sebei, Teso, and West Nile.
About a month ago, the Police Advisory Committee (PAC) comprehensively discussed the corruption tendencies mostly at major Kampala police stations. The argument was that detectives who have stayed for over five years at stations have become “kings” and could not be condemned by District or Division Police Commanders (DPCs) or officers in charge (OC stations).
For a long time, police leadership has transferred commanders and other personnel but not detectives on the grounds that they are handling major cases that would stall if they were frequently moved.However, this became a problem, and only 35% of cases reached court each year, with the remainder remaining in backlog.
When Maj. Tom Magambo was appointed as the new director of Criminal Investigations, replacing AIGP Grace Akullo, his first act was to review cases that have been handled by every detective. It is said that Maj. Magambo noticed many had several cases under investigation and the complainants could be frustrated by being asked to pay money in order for their case files to be taken to court.
A senior police officer at Naguru said when Maj Magambo tabled his findings on why case files are stalling, he received the IGP’s nod to overhaul the CID directorate. This is the second major transfer of detectives. Maj Magambo started by overhauling station, division, district, and unit CID heads
