The outgoing Kiira regional police commander, Rodgers Sseguya says his command reduced the crime rates in the area following his deployment.
Sseguya on Thursday handed over command to Charles Nsaba who was recently deployed to the Kiira region.
Sseguya was deployed to the division at a time when crime rates were soaring. Machete-wielding men masterminded the rise in crime.
Sseguya reported that there were 8084 crimes reported. They included those involving machete attacks, phone snatching, house break-ins, and sexual and reproductive health-related crimes.
He said those crimes had gone down as he left the division. Part of his handover report indicates that they registered 2301 cases in May 2024, but the same figure lowered to 2135 in June 2024. Sseguya credits this success to teamwork from the different security agencies.
However, sections within the Kiira regional security committee blame officials from both the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the judiciary for lack of coordination, which they say frustrates the possibility of realizing crime-free societies.
Brig. Emmanuel Kanyesigye says that residents in Jinja City and Jinja district were enjoying a sense of security sanity between November and April, respectively, when they held joint operations, geared towards tracking down criminals.
Kanyesigye notes that, following intelligence-led investigations; they laid a swoop where hardcore criminals and gang leaders were arrested.
He says that hardcore criminals were remanded to Kirinya prisons, with hopes of quick prosecution processes, which would enable reprimand of the accused persons, but line officials have frustrated this.
Kanyesigye notes that, after attaining information on how, some of the key accused persons would be released on mandatory bail terms, following failure by the DPP to adduce implicating evidence against the accused persons on time, he organized a joint meeting with them alongside the resident judge, but not much was done to quicken the prosecution processes.
He notes that the officials instead accused him of being sentimental and resolved to release the hard-core criminals on bail, which has sprouted a new wave of machete-wielding crimes in the region.
Kanyesigye adds, “The judge said that she works with evidence and not sentiments to make decisions, therefore, she couldn’t hold onto accused persons with rights to attain bail.
However, we should be human in making decisions and at least have empathy for the members of the general public, who are the primary victims of machete attacks, whenever such criminals are free,”
The deputy resident city commissioner for the southern division, Henry Kitambula, said that the laxity from the DPP’s office, coupled with interference from political players in the region.
Kitambula notes that “Most of these hardcore criminals are well placed with ability to mobilize for good lawyers to push for bail and even when judicial officers set conditions demanding for cash bails, they can afford in these demands, with most of them using this partial freedom to recycle crime,”.
Both the judicial and DPP officials present in this meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity say that most of the prosecution processes involving hardcore criminals are frustrated by the fear of most witnesses and victims alike, who fear attacks from their oppressors on release.
They further say that there are cases of victims who were at one time killed by former convicts, which history keeps on frustrating the progress of most cases.
Meanwhile, Nsaba promised coordination of different teams to ensure the reduction of crime and proper reprimand of suspected criminals.
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