A week ago I called for the Uganda Police Force to be disbanded. I change my mind. The police should be charged for crimes against humanity.
Exactly 10 days after Digory and Fiona’s house was burgled, it was broken into again. Digory was working at home until about 1400 hours. He left the house for two hours and returned to find his home had been burgled AGAIN!
10 days after they went to Kajjansi Police Station and the only assistance they received was … none.
10 days after the police said they would investigate the case and never did.
10 days after the police told Digory and Fiona that if they found anything they should inform the police.
This evening when Digory called to tell me his laptop, all his DJ equipment, parts of his PA system and his DVD player were missing, I couldn’t believe it. Off he went again to Kajjansi Police Station, hoping against hope that the very officers who had been completely useless the first time around would perhaps feel sorry for him and look into his case.
A friend of mine called a friend high up in Kampala Metropolitan Police and attempted to get things moving. We were given the cell phone number of the Kajjansi Divisional Police Commander, all the time keeping our fingers crossed that something would happen. When I called Officer DPC, he sounded concerned. He promised to do whatever he could to look into the case. You know what that entailed? A phone call to someone to tell someone to help Digory investigate the burglary.
A couple of minutes later the detective assigned came to the scene. His first question was, “What do you think happened here?”
What?!!
This guy was completely useless. We had secured the scene for him, we carefully walked the perimeter with him and we gave him detailed background of the case. Did we get anything? NOTHING! Mr. Detective looked around the broken door, opening it for show with a crumpled dirty blue handkerchief in order to preserve the fingerprints of the perpetrators. Although it was obvious that being a daytime robbery on a busy road someone somewhere must have heard or seen something, he didn’t bother to ask any questions. He picked up a padlock that had been picked open with his crumpled blue kerchief and asked to be taken back to the station. He couldn’t be bothered to spend his own 300 shillings for a taxi back to Kajjansi.
At the station, Mr. Detective told Digory the case couldn’t be handled any further at the time because the fingerprint expert was not around. FINGER. PRINT. EXPERT. In a country in which there is no centralized database on anything.
So that’s that. The case will go no further. Digory was given another shabby piece of paper with a date and a case file number. He was forced to cancel all his appointments this week because he cannot afford to hire new equipment. Fiona is terrified to sleep in her house because of the invasion of her privacy.
As I type this, I hear sirens on Entebbe Road. Some government minister or High Court judge is rushing to Entebbe and can’t be bothered to drive through traffic like the rest of us. So they deploy a pickup truck full of armed police officers to go ahead of it, loudly blaring sirens, sending other road users into the ditches. They would rather spend money on nothingness than reality.
Digory’s case was a simple burglary. It it were a murder case, rape, abduction, domestic violence … God knows it wouldn’t be different.
So here’s my plan. Disband the damn Uganda Police Force and charge all its officers and men with crimes against humanity.
