As the Uganda police force continues to refine its security arrangements to secure February 18 elections, its plan to incorporate some of its “crime preventers” into special constables is drawing more controversy.

The “crime preventers” will form a major part of the 36,000 special constables, whose recruitment officials say was cleared, to bring the number of personnel required to secure the electoral process to 150,000.

The recruitment exercise is underway. It is being conducted by officers in charge of posts or smaller stations where they are attached and co-ordinated under the crime intelligence desks at major police stations within their locality, according to information available to The EastAfrican.

“It [recruitment of special police constables] can include some crime preventers, provided they have the abilities. If there are those who qualify to be recruited, certainly we will be looking to include them,” said Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson. 

“Some people have been politicising the issue of crime preventers but they are fine and we continue to work with them. We have not found any problems with them. These are Ugandan citizens who are patriotic, who love their country and are willing to volunteer some of their time to help in making it secure,” added Mr Enanga.

His statement comes in the wake of a joint statement three national and two foreign human-rights organisations released on January 13, asking the government to urgently suspend the crime preventers programme. As they see it, halting recruitment and deployment is critical for preventing violence during the election period and to demonstrate Uganda’s commitment to non-partisan policing and respect for human rights.

Upcoming elections

“The ill-defined role and oversight of crime preventers is a cause for concern during the upcoming elections,” said Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Network Uganda (HURINET-U), Chapter Four Uganda, and Foundation for Human Rights Initiative (FHRI).

“Crime preventers work in a grey area between the state and civilians, allowing them to operate with impunity and without oversight or clear command structure… The government needs to suspend the crime preventers programme to reduce the potential for voter intimidation and further human-rights abuses,” said Ndifuna Mohammed, who heads HURINET-U.

Although the police insists crime preventers are a non-partisan volunteer force for good that has boosted Police efforts in preventing and managing crime, the five organisations say there is overwhelming evidence the programme is strongly linked to the ruling NRM party and is primarily “aimed at intimidating or reducing support for the political opposition.”

“During several training sessions and ‘pass-outs,’ or graduations, recruits wore yellow T-shirts, the colour of the ruling National Resistance Movement. A copy of a crime preventer training manual from one region states: ‘Every good thing you are seeing around is a result of good NRM governance’,” notes the statement before it goes on to list a series of cases where the crime preventers’ actions been both unlawful and partisan.

In one such case, the organisations alleged crime preventers had gone door-to-door in one village, cataloguing the political affiliations of villagers to intimidate them and discourage them from voting for the political opposition — an issue that drew fury on the floor of parliament on December 24 last year, with opposition politicians demanding immediate clarification and stringent control of crime preventers’ roles.

Whereas the Police Act permits the force to recruit special constables to reinforce security demands in a given area, the rights organisations are concerned police may be trying to legalise the recruitment of crime preventers, which many already view as an illegality.

“Turning crime preventers into special constables won’t solve the problem. The issue is not in name but in the training and orientation they have as well as the role they are supposed to play. First, they need a clear law under which they operate. Then they require retraining under a clear and proper syllabus that looks at understanding crime and community policing. They also need a clear, open command and reporting structure,” said Peter Magelah Gwayaka, who works with Chapter Four Uganda.

Crime preventers have been a constant source of contention since police began recruiting and training them in early 2014.