While many people are convinced that policemen on the patrol unit are always in the habit of exhorting money from their victims, a Uganda Radio Network reporter spent a day with the unit and reports stories survival and perseverance.
Richard Eliga and Samuel Bodi have been working in the Emergency Response Unit based at the Central Police Station and now share stories of the survival and how they will never take money from people on the road.
Eliga says he was paid about 3.2million shillings as salary for 14 months, the money he used to start a stationary shop in Moyo from which he makes 600,000 shillings every month.
Eliga, a police constable, says his is the only stationary shop serving a number of institutions and it’s currently being run by his mother while she also manages the family farm.
Earning 260,000 shillings, Eliga says he uses part of this money while in Kampala and while on duty and does not have any other expenses. During his free time in the evenings, Eliga says he only drinks soda.
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He says when on patrol they are usually abused by the public but he has never felt like not going to work because he’s got a job as a policeman.
Eliga says they rarely stop vehicles unless directed by controllers to impound and arrest and take the vehicle to CPS.
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Samuel Bodi, another police patroller saved the money he had been paid during training when he was joining police to buy two oxen.
With the help of his mother, Bodi also grows millet, beans and sorghum which is sold to sustain his family. Like Eliga, Bodi is also not married.
Eliga and Bodi say they took this decision after realising that their salaries were meager to sustain them and their families.
Today the two officers take pride in the projects back at home saying many people claim they earn peanuts in police. Everyday when on duty they take their lunch in the CPS information room. They are transported to and from work and have built self help houses in which they stay.
