The Inspector General of Police Lt. Gen. Kale Kayihura has promoted over 500 police officers in a move the force says is aimed at putting the right people in the right positions.
Those promoted range from the rank of Assistant Inspector of Police to Assistant Inspector General of Police.
In the sweeping promotions announced today, all Regional Police Commanders have been elevated to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police, while their deputies will be at the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police together with their Regional Criminal Investigations Officers.
Judith Nabakooba, the deputy police spokesperson who is one of the beneficiaries, says the promotions were made to ensure that officers fit in the offices they are occupying. Fast-rising Nabakooba, who is the Deputy Chief Political Commissar has been appointed a full Commissioner of Police.
Among those promoted to fit in their offices are Director of Counter Terrorism, John Ndungutse and the Chief Political Commissar Asuman Mugenyi, who have been promoted to the rank of Assistant Inspector General of Police.
The new regulations are in agreement with the new police structure which puts all Division/District Police Commanders at the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police. Also the Officers in-charge Criminal Investigations will now be at the rank of Senior Superintendent of Police, the same rank with the DPC. An officer in-charge of a police station will be at the rank of Superintendent of Police.
The move by Kayihura, who was appointed to head the police force in November 2005, appears to have corrected what many observers have been seeing as an anomaly of deploying junior officers to offices higher than those of their seniors colleagues.
Kayihura argued then that a rank and an office were two different things, emphasizing that he was after performance.
It was not uncommon to find a Senior Superintendent of Police working as the Officer in-charge CID and answerable to an Assistant Superintendent of Police who in police ranks would be junior.
