The Minister of Internal Affairs, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, has said the accommodation situation in the police force is disgraceful.
Maj Gen Otafiire, who is also the chairperson of the Police Authority, made the revelations during the 26th Police Council meeting at the police headquarters in Naguru yesterday.
“The state of accommodation of the police force is a disgrace to say the least. In fact, I am surprised we still have police officers. People are living in places I don’t want to mention…sometimes I avoid going to the barracks because what will I say,” Gen Otafiire said.
Moments after Gen Otafiire made that statement, he commissioned 420 apartments for the police, which he said is a drop in the ocean. It has taken police more than 10 years to complete Phase I of the project due to shortage of funds.
The police, which has 54,000 personnel, have a housing accommodation gap of 33,000 units. Last financial year, they erected 10,000 uniports to fill the gap. Even the existing housing units, 9,200 need critical repairs.
Gen Otafiire said the government doesn’t have enough funds to deal with the accommodation challenges, but insists the housing shortage can be solved if private investors are invited to help out.
“We told you to get someone. There are people who have money. We have agreed with the Ministry of Finance that there are people who have their own money. They should come and build police barracks and we shall pay them gradually,” he said.
Gen Otafiire said the shortage of houses has forced police officers to rent far away from their workstations, which causes a chain of other problems such as late coming as they struggle to navigate through traffic jams, hence affecting their performance and service delivery.
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