Uganda arrests former police chief Kale Kayihura
Wednesday June 13 2018
Former Ugandan Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura. PHOTO | MONITOR | NMG
Former Ugandan police chief has been arrested, the military spokesperson has confirmed.
General Kale Kayihura was taken into custody on Wednesday morning for questioning but the army did not disclose what the interrogation is about.
Reports that he had been apprehended started circulating on Tuesday throwing the country into confusion as local media reported that he had been arrested and later that he had not.
In a statement on Wednesday, army spokesman Brig Richard Karemire said Gen Kayihura, "still a serving soldier of Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces”, was asked to report to the military headquarters in Kampala on Tuesday by the Chief of Defence Forces General David Muhoozi.
A helicopter was subsequently dispatched to pick him up from his Kashagama home in Lyantonde district, about 200km west of Kampala, but it returned to the Entebbe Airforce Base without the former IGP because he “had travelled to Mbarara”, the statement reads.
“The helicopter was today [Wednesday] sent back to Kashagama and has returned to Kampala with him safely on board.”
Gen Kayihura was fired by President Yoweri Museveni in March this year after nearly 13 years at the helm of the police force.
He was once seen as one of the most powerful military officers in the country before falling out of favour with the President recently.
Mr Museveni has blamed the police for failing to curb rising insecurity in the country including murders and kidnappings. After sacking Gen Kayihura and the Minister of Security Henry Tumukunde the President said he had “uprooted the bean weevil that had infiltrated the police force.”
During his tenure, Gen Kayihura was accused, mostly by human rights watchdogs, of militarising the police and heavy handedness in dealing with anti-government protests.
Several of his allies, including senior police officers, have been arrested for alleged illegal arrests, kidnap and repatriation of Rwandan refugees.
The police force has also seen a raft of leadership changes.