Police have reduced the number of its officers deployed at the Parliament of Uganda, from the current 400 to about 200, with the rest being taken back to the police headquarters for further redeployment.
Officials say the reduction follows reassessment of the security situation and the frugality promised by the new Speaker of Parliament, Marksons Jacob Oboth Oboth.
Shortly after being elected Speaker, Oboth had promised to review Parliament’s budget and redirect some of what he called wasteful expenditure to committees and other departments that need the money more.
Chris Obore, the Director of Communications and Public Affairs at the parliament, confirmed the reduction in the number of police officers and said this fulfils the promises made by the speaker.
‘I think to understand the reduction in the number of police personnel here should be understood in three contexts. One, you need to listen to the speaker, the new speaker, and what he says. He’s been consistently, since elected, kept saying he would operate on financial frugality.” He explained.
”So, by reducing the number of police, we achieve in that direction what we promised. Two, the reduction is always done in consultation with the police authorities. And if that happens, it means the police authorities are satisfied with the numbers required here, because they are the ones who assess the security threat levels,’ Obore said.
He, however, did not say how many forces the parliament exactly has, but said they could be more or less.
‘Normally, we report the round figures. There could be 205, but you say 200. There could be 199, you can say 200. So let’s go with that,’ he said.
Obore said Parliament and Police authorities agreed that not all the four hundred officers were needed, after a careful analysis of the security situation in the Parliament, neccesitating the reduction.
‘If there were higher security threats, maybe the police would advise otherwise. The fact that they have gone with that decision means they are satisfied equally, and that serves the promise of the Speaker that he would prefer to live humble and be efficient,’ Obore said.
Sources at Parliament who did not want to be named said the police officers have been given until the end of the week to vacate Parliament and report back to the headquarters at Naguru.
Obore on his part said deployment of the forces normally takes immediate effect from the time of announcement.
He, however, neither confirmed nor denied whether the directive for immediate vacation of the parliament had been issued.
‘Forces operate on directives, not as civilians who behave on procedural matters. I am sure when a commander-in-chief issues directives, they are always with immediate effect. That’s what I understand with police deployments,’ he said.
Apart from guarding the parliament, VIP and VVIP officers are deployed to guard and protect both the homes of top parliamentary leadership, including the Speaker, the deputy, LoP, and the parliamentary commissioners, among others.
Our attempts to get clarifications on who will be deployed and retained were unsuccessful because the police spokesperson, Rusoke Kituuma, did not respond to our calls.
Obore, on his part, said it is the duty of the police to know who is deployed where and to guard who.
‘First of all, you see, VIP protection is done at the VIP directorate, so I will not go into the determination of who has what protection is not entirely parliamentary. It has different levels of analysis, of threat assessment, and the appropriate deployment,’ he said.