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Uganda: Traffic Cops Took Bribes; But Where Are the Senior Officers?
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The Monitor (Kampala)
COLUMN
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Nicholas Sengoba
And this is not breaking news. A few years ago President Museveni told the world that his younger brother General Caleb Akandwanaho a.k.a Salim Saleh had confessed to having taken a 'commission' in the hundreds of millions in the now infamous junk helicopter deal in which Uganda lost millions of dollars. He was promptly forgiven and instead told to use the money in military operations in northern Uganda.
And in the same country last week the Uganda Police Force paraded 17 traffic police officers arrested by operatives of its Police Professional Standards Unit (PPSU) for allegedly soliciting bribes from errant drivers, to the tune of a few thousand shillings.
The suspects were purportedly stalked by undercover informers who recorded them on video hiding the sweetener in their armpits and underwear. They were depicted as some of the bad apples denigrating the reputation of the force.
A picture they say speaks a thousand words. The one of the parade carried by most of the dailies was no different. The suspects were malnourished, lugubrious looking greenhorns, humbly standing behind their 'captors,' the rather chubby Commissioner for traffic Dr Stephen Kasiima, the smart head of the PPSU John Ndugutse and smiling police spokesperson Ms Judith Nabakooba.
It was quite significant that none of the suspects wore a snow white uniform; the type adopted by the traffic police (especially the old hands,) ever since Uganda hosted CHOGM in November 2007. Did they get a tip off about the operation?
Revelations as a result of the Justice Sebutinde Commission of inquiry into the mismanagement of the police force made it common knowledge that the corruption in the police especially the traffic department is a well coordinated effort of a cabal.
The senior officers deploy their juniors like they are sending them out on a hunting expedition, some of whose proceeds expectedly end up in the pockets of the deploying authority.
The sanctions for failure being deployment at night when traffic is light, or staying behind at the station as a desk officer to engage in less lucrative clerical work.
Why this latest clean up attempt by the police should be taken with a pinch of salt is because like most reforms in this country, from the start it comes with glaring shortfalls, contradictions and at times ill motives.
As put beside the junk helicopter deal, there are usually two standards for the abuse of public office. The smaller, the culprit, (and the bribe or offence,) the greater the zeal to demonstrate zero tolerance to corruption plus the bigger the punishment and vice versa.
For instance, to this day the police have never explained why nothing was done to punish former Director of the Criminal Investigations Department Ms Elizerbeth Kutesa for being involved in fraudulently tampering with records in a police file so as to incriminate opposition leader Dr Kizza Besigye in a farcical rape trial.
Rarely do these anti-corruption measures go far enough in addressing the real reasons why public officers take bribes. In the traffic police for instance come rain or sunshine, these officers stand on the roadside the whole day sometimes without meals. Come month end, the take-home is a paltry Shs150,000 to 'miraculously' cater for their families and all other needs.
Yet it is not uncommon for this small amount to come a couple of months late. Most times what is called home is a disused mortuary, uniport, or a mud and wattle structure (mama ingia pole) in an environment of poor sanitation. But all this is in a country whose revenue collection has jumped from Shs84 billion in 1986 at the beginning of the NRM revolution, to Shs 3,000 billion as we speak.
How come some of this money is never put to improving on the lot of public servants and the police in particular?Better still, according to the World Bank, by 2005 Uganda was losing about $300 million in corruption and procurement malpractices and it is not getting any better. Who eats all this money?
Most of these cases are frequently reported with some of the culprits being close relatives or confidants of the president or high ranking government officials and those "who fought" and are now using their new found privilege to receive perpetual compensation for the 'sacrifice' they made to liberate this country.
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Yet the gusto filled efforts by the police and all the other anti-graft bodies like the office of the Inspector General of Government (IGG) rarely affect this lot. It is for this reason that one is tempted to feel for the 17 traffic policemen and all the other small fry who receive the stick when they are put under the weight of the law.
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