Authorities in Kalangala district are demanding for the deployment of 200 additional cops to curb insecurity. Kalangala district is comprised of 84 but only 62 of them are inhabited by residents. There are only 11 police post in the district that provides security pnly to residents on Bugala and Bubeke Islands. Godfrey Matte, Kalangala District Police Commander says that no single cop is deployed on 40 other Islands in the district.
He cites some of the affected Islands as Nkese, Luwungu, Sserinya and Bugaba amongst others. Matte explains that the lack of police presence on these islands is a big threat to national security and stability. He says that he has already written to the Police headquarters in Kampala requesting for 200 additional cops for deployment on the Islands. Matte says that they have been relying on local councils to police the Islands but some of the LC1 officials are compromised leading to the escalation of crime.
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Joseph Ssenabulya, the Criminal Investigations officer Kalangala says the absences of police on the Island makes it very difficult for police to follow up cases. He says that in addition inadequate manpower they also lack facilitation to assign detectives to follow up cases in these islands.
Ssenabulya says despite the fact that they haven’t recorded many cases from the affected islands, chances are that many cases go unreported due to lack of officers there. Gyagenda Kabiri, a resident of Kalangala fears that criminals including rebels could take advantage of the absence of security operatives on the Island to attack Uganda.
Gyagenda accuses government of concentrating services at Bugala Island yet many other areas are neglected.
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However, Dominic Tibasiimwa, the Kalangala Deputy RDC disagrees with police on the need to deploy an additional 200 cops. Tibasiimwa claims that they have other security operatives in the district in addition to the available police personnel, adding that police is well equipped to handle any emergencies.
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Reports from Kalangala police headquarters show that there are only 64 cops in the district manning a population of over 70000 people.
