Promoting police accountability in Uganda

INTERVIEW / Joyce Freda Apio

Comunidad Segura interviewed Joyce Freda Apio – a lawyer and mother of three from Northern Uganda, and project coordinator of the Police Accountability of HURINET-Uganda, a 15 year old network of civil society organizations dedicated to promoting and protecting human rights. Apio tells us how HURINET-U with 35 member NGOs has been able to bring to public discussion a subject that was kept strictly within government spheres until very recently, the police forces.

New things are happening in Uganda. Now there is a disciplinary body for police misconduct, the community policing concept is gaining foothold, the right to demonstrate peacefully has been protected from encroachment by the Police Act. More importantly, there are venues for citizens to enforce police accountability. Hurinet developed tools for that purpose, such as a manual on accountability for the general public and complaint forms designed in partnership with the police, available at local police stations.

Complaints of unprofessional conduct will be met with discipline dispensed inside the institution, complaints of human rights violations and can be lodged with the Human Rights Commission in Kampala, for examination and compensations “it is a bit slow, it takes patience, as with the legal system”. Most importantly says Joyce, we want people in Uganda to know that the police seen with mistrust for corruption and brutality, can be held accountable as an institution for the wrongdoings of individuals. 

There has been significant progress over the past two years: “Nowadays we are good partners. We visit the police when we need to, of course we still encounter some resistance, but we are glad we have a good number in the force who appreciate and understand our concerns,” said Apio who contends that the civilian police are there for the protection of the people, and that by creating public awareness, they will not only better do their job, but gain the confidence of the public.

There are two sides to Police accountability one needs to boost internal controls, through training and discipline, but also to build awareness in civil society of the role of the police and how to oversee it. Which aspect do you work?

In our case we work with both aspects. We involve both civil society and the police. In the beginning there was little police involvement, we basically were trying to lobby for audience. Two years ago, in Uganda issues of police force were the preserve of the state; no one would talk about it. In 2006, we took up the topic during a period of great public outcry, there were a lot of human rights abuses, the country was undergoing a political transition, from what we call the regime system of government to multiparty system. There were a lot of clashes, political rallies when the police were used tear gas and even shootings disperse peaceful demonstrations. It was unnecessary. 

So it was our conclusion that the police was being used by the government to act beyond their role. What we expect from at the least the civil police and in this the international community agrees, is that it protect and serve the people, it is supposed to be a civilian authority. What we had was the regime police, a police that is partisan, and that is wrong.

With such conflicting roles, are there different police forces in Uganda?

In Uganda I would say we have one force, though in the army there is the military police. Our focus with civil society is on the civil police, the Ugandan Police Force. The challenge is that there are no clear guidelines of where the role of one ends and the other begins. The military police is supposed to provide security for issues of state. It is rare that you see both forces in the streets, except for example during elections that is considered a state interest, when you see the military police everywhere.

The Ugandan Police Force has several special units, the Violent Crime Crack Unit, for fast actions against robberies, kidnappings, we have the Rapid Response Unit, similar actions, we have the Interpol for those people wanted in the country for criminal issues, to name a few.

You said the notion of community policing is a year old in Uganda. How do civilians interact with the police in daily life?

In Uganda there are police stations, maybe one in a village. The same team in the station does everything, they register complaints, they do investigations, and they carry out patrols. That can be a problem, if you are a citizen and you want to register a complaint against a police officer you are faced with a challenge of walking back to the same police station to report a complaint. People find that very difficult. Right now there is a new disciplinary body, the Professional Standards Unit, they are there to receive complaints from the public, it is still very new, about a year old.

How has the Professional Standards Unit been received so far?

They are overwhelmed by the volume of complaints that are being reported. We developed a User Guide for the public to use when they have complaints against police. We give various options you can take, for people who don’t have the courage to walk back to the police station to report a complaint, because the Professional Standards Unit is in the capital city, in Kampala right now. In the up country stations you do not have the same services, so you still have to go to a police station to register a complaint.

What is important in the guidelines to the public?

We encourage people not to judge an individual wrong committed by one police officer as reflecting on the entire station. If there is professional misconduct, the police force can discipline him or her. People should not feel intimidated by going to the same police station to report a complaint, on the grounds that it is the same people involved. We also give people the option of the Uganda Human Rights Commission, a government institution mandated to protect human rights across the country. Its not part of the system of justice, but it’s supposed to provide free support. If you have a complaint you can lodge it with the Human Rights Commission, commissioners will listen to complaints in a tribunal, sentences are passed and people get compensations.

It does help, but like in the courts of law you have to be patient, it takes some time. We also have the IGG, the Inspector General of Government, for issues of corruption. To that effect we devote a form that we are going to distribute to all police stations in the country, so that if you have a complaint you will be able to pick up forms that we designed together with the police.

That describes how the public sees the police. How do police officers see their work? What kind of training do they have?

In Uganda the training period is 9 months. Right now they have established that candidates to the police force must have completed all schooling to the end of secondary school. Now of course we have many people entering the force with university degrees. But since this is new, most of the officers you find in the streets, most officers you find doing patrols at night, have very low levels of education. Those officers recruited in the past in many cases are people who joined because they can speak English, or they are people who have become problematic in their communities, and join the police for status, for holding a gun. It has been a bit difficult for the government to clean up the force for this reason.

And for police chiefs?

Almost all the police officers undergo similar training, especially those who undergo the nine months training in police school. For chiefs things are different. We have the inspector general of the police force is always appointed. The police council nominates three names with no specific background. The president of Uganda is supposed to send it to parliament for approval. As it is, the president has appointed a member of the Ugandan army to head the police, this has happened for the past 10 years.

With a dormant conflict that has a long history, is gun violence a concern for the police?

The conflict 27 years has not ended, but it is silent. The international criminal court has issued a warrant for the arrest of their leader of the armed rebellion, Joseph Cony. A number of people have been rescued; some of them were able to surrender. The challenge is how they come back into the community. Some of them continue communicating, have illegal guns, end up committing robberies in communities, one of the top commanders was given amnesty to surrender, was given a salary to start a business. Instead he created a gang of criminals that was robbing and looting, in this case they were arrested.

This puts civil society initiatives in a more complicated situation…

Our relation as civil society organization is also delicate. There is a lot of misinformation; we have to be careful not to be manipulated by former combatants. There is corruption. People can be arrested on trumped up charges. We cannot offer support, especially financial support to every claim, we often send people to the Human Rights Commission so that cases can be analyzed in depth.

HURINET-U national coordinator Ndifuna Mohamed, described to Comunidad Segura: “the nebulous nature of the security sector in Uganda where the Military has a presence in the police and often commits excesses that are later blamed on the police is a challenge when it comes to drawing lines of accountability”. Can you give us an example?

One example of the types of challenges for law enforcement is the Karamoja region. It was named after the Karimojong, a warrior people who raid for cattle and are armed with guns. They live in the most underdeveloped part of Uganda, the far eastern area, a big place of about 5 districts it borders Congo and Kenya. Most of their guns they get from the Congo. They even used to sell guns in open markets. In the course of their raids, they kill people. There was a disarmament exercise carried out by the Ugandan army, so you can imagine they treated the disarmament like they were fighting an enemy, while they were combating a way of life, an errant culture. The army’s action meant so many cases of human rights violation. This was in 2007 mostly. They managed grab most guns by force. In these communities, everybody has guns, even the women and children. The army would break into people's homes and beat them until they gave up their weapons. This is the kind of challenges in terms of armed violence. After the disarmament exercise, there has been an effort to reestablish law and order in the Karamoja through a police program, RELOCA.  This program is in the responsibility of the Ugandan Police Force. Although in that region the police uniform is similar to the army uniform. You can imagine how confusing it gets for civilians.