Fatboy and Olive, Presenters on The Fatboy Show, have expressed curiosity concerning the circumstances under which the Ugandan government plans to deploy over 160 Ugandan police officers in Somalia.
Reports from the Daily Monitor showed that police officers to be deployed to Somalia in December have undergone a six month intensive training course on Peacekeeping operations of African Union Mission (AMISOM). According to the Ugandan Police, these will provide public order management, protection of African Union (AU) personnel and facilities within means and capabilities,as well as supporting police operations that require a formed response.
While commenting on the matter, Fatboy said that exporting police officers to other countries when Uganda itself has a lot of unanswered, ongoing crimes makes the decision and process illogical.“How is it that we are deploying police in other countries yet we also have criminal injustices in the country such as cattle rustling in Karamoja and the recent insurgency in Masaka? More so, what difference is the police going to make when the army is already there, or if there is a money element attached to this?”
Olive, who conceded that there might be an enormous money attachment to the operation, said that the services of the police officers in this operation may be similar to the work of security guards who in 2009, were sent to Afghanistan and Iraq to serve alongside the Ugandan Army.
“There must be an exorbitant budget laid within the contract from which the officers will be scooping some good hundreds of dollars.” She said
Over and above that, Olive wondered who makes these decisions and whether they are ever held accountable for them.“Am wondering who makes these decisions since police officers like other employees in the government are civil servants and are supposed to work internally within a country’s borders. So when such decisions are made, are their people held accountable for them or because it's Uganda we just go with the flow?” she asked.
The Fatboy show is hosted by James Onen aka Fatboy and Olive Najjuma every weekday from 6am to 10am on RX Radio.