Kyadondo East Member of Parliament (MP), Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi Wine has notified Parliament that he intends to move a motion urging government to improve on the welfare of Police officers in the country.
“Having interacted with our security officers, I have come to realise that many work under unfavourable conditions; they are underpaid, poorly accommodated and they experience so much injustice and unfair treatment,” he said.
“I want us to remember that they are also humans like us, with families to look after and we should consider their plight as a matter of priority,” he added.
The legislator made the remarks while making a personal statement complaining about the manner in which police and other security agencies in the country have continued to disregard and abuse his human rights.
Kyagulanyi accused the Police of subjecting him to several forms of physical and psychological torture which has happened on several occasions whenever he gets arrested.
He said that despite the pronouncement by Parliament barring Police from stopping his concerts, the Police leadership has continued to defy Parliament’s directive and continued to frustrate his concerts which has affected his ability to carry out activities as MP.
He added that whereas the issue of Police brutality has featured so much in Parliament police brutality is getting out of hand and called on MPs not to look the other way when rights of others are being violated.
Army Rejects Bobi Wine’s help
The army has however, trashed the MP’s move to help them saying they don’t need his help.
Accordinf to Chimpreports, UPDF Spokesman, Brig. Richard Karemire last evening said the army doesn’t need any kind of support from Bobi Wine.
“The officers are fine and are not complaining about their salaries, we don’t need any kind of help from Hon. Bobi Wine,” he said as quoted by ChimpReports.
According to the army spokesman, UPDF is already adequately represented by 10 MPs and 3 Ministers of Defense and Veterans Affairs, who are putting all the necessary energy for the betterment of soldiers’ welfare.
“These are sufficiently representing our interests and there is no gap,” added Karemire.
Brig. Karemire implored Bobi to concentrate on the issues affecting the people of his constituency.
“Let him represent the people of Kyadondo East who sent him there (Parliament) not the UPDF. We don’t want it,” he emphasized.
Under the salary structure for the Uganda Police Force and the army, lower rank officers earn about Shs400,000 and high ranking officers get about Shs2.5m per month.
