The police have resumed using dogs in crowd control 18 years after they were withdrawn over concerns that they were inflicting serious injuries on civilians during demonstrations.
Officers from the Police Canine Unit were seen setting dogs on supporters of National Unity Platform presidential candidate, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine in Kawempe Division, Kampala City on November 24.
Around two police dogs were seen grabbing Bobi Wine’s supporters, while they were walking to attend their candidate’s rally.
Human rights activists and legal experts have condemned the use of dogs in crowd control.
The Uganda Law Society Vice President, Mr Anthony Asiimwe, said: ‘If the State permits its law-enforcement agencies to unleash living creatures of political coercion, and to arrest innocent bystanders, what does it say about the rule of law in our country? Such intimidation tactics are unacceptable in a democratic state.’
The Uganda Police Force had earlier, in the late 1990s and early 2000s, used canines during demonstrations.
But the then Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, ordered a halt to their deployment in cases of protests in 2007.
Gen Kayihura’s directives came after a police canine handler set a dog on a Daily Monitor photojournalist, Mr Joseph Kiggundu, to stop him from taking photographs of the arrest of Opposition politicians during a demonstration at the Constitution Square in Kampala City.
The police dog bit Mr Kiggundu, which prompted journalists to demonstrate outside the Central Police Station in Kampala City. Gen Kayihura later invited the journalists led by Mr Geoffrey Wokulira, who was also a journalism rights activist, for a dialogue at Kibuli in Kampala.
Kayihura halts deployment
Gen Kayihura directed the halting of the deployment of the police dogs during demonstrations, saying he had received several reports that they bite innocent people and inflict serious injuries on them.
The police canine unit has dogs carrying out different tasks like sniffing, crowd control and guarding. Dogs trained for arrests bite the suspects or their clothes and hold onto them until their handlers intervene. These dogs often leave their targets with serious injuries.
The deployment of police dogs on the streets strain the police canine services in the rural areas and sensitive places where they are critically needed.
Police have 200 dogs around the country. Some districts don’t have a single dog yet the police plan is to have two dogs per a station.
There are 2,200 police stations in the country. At least one dog has been deployed in each district, which police authorities say is a drop in the ocean given the high demand of the canine services in rural areas.
In 2024, canine unit dogs were involved in 19,899 tracking cases and led to 15,579 arrests and recovery of 6,920 exhibits. In December 2020, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Kahinda Otafiire, said the number of dogs in the country is still small, adding that each sub-county should have a police dog.
‘Since I was there, I said we need around 700 dogs. How many do you have now? Two hundred dogs! How can you have 200 dogs when we have 2,000 sub-counties?’ Otafiire said.