President Yoweri Museveni – the Commander in Chief of the UPDF has this week set camp in the Karamoja sub region and parts of Eastern and North Eastern regions to meet security officials and political leaders to deal decisively with the re-insurgence of cattle-rustlers in the area .
Gun wielding rustlers have been on the rampage raiding cows while at the same time killing innocent people and raping women .
Museveni has since met security organs including the UPDF, Police, RDCs, ISO officers and UWA officials over the security situation in Karamoja, Teso, Bugisu, Sebei and Kapchorwa.
Museveni commended security forces in the region for their concept of a reaction force and Intelligence-led operations to curb cattle rustling including profiling suspects.
The president noted that lack of effective horizontal and vertical cooperation amongst security leaders in different districts had led to the security lapses . He said that daily cattle markets must be regulated to curb crime and warned against blind deployment.
He explained that that fighting cattle rustlers is different from other wars. “This must be an intelligence led operation,” he said and challenged the police to plan and use government systems including chiefs to fight crime instead of pushing for more manpower.
Museveni referred to the size of the force at Independence! “The size of Uganda has not changed. The Uganda you are looking after is the same one handed over at Independence. They were managing huge areas with small numbers,” he noted and called for transport of forces from controlled security points
Agreed that Security roads must be made and improved, increase provisions for watering points for security personnel.
