In May, 2024, President Museveni, in as many as over two decades, appointed a career police officer as Inspector General of Police.
This came after he appointed Abas Byakagaba as the new IGP.
In another rare occurrence, the president appointed James Ochaya as the new deputy Inspector General of Police to replace Gen Tumusiime Katsigazi.
The last career policeman to serve as IGP was John Kisembo who was replaced in 2001 by Gen Edward Katumba Wamala.
Since then, for 23 years, the Inspector General of Police or his deputy was a UPDF soldier.
Whereas Ochola, a career policeman who had deputy IGP to Gen Kale Kayihura was in 2018 appointed as Inspector General of Police, he had UPDF soldiers as deputies.
For example, Gen Muzeeyi Sabiti, Gen Paul Lokech and Gen Godfrey Tumusiime Katsigazi served as his deputies.
This meant that either the IGP or his deputy for the previous 23 years before May 2024 was a UPDF soldier.
There was no time during those two decades or so that both the IGP and his deputy were career policemen.
Directors
Just like the top leadership, many of the directors in Police for many years were serving UPDF officers who the president appointed to serve in the law and enforcement body.
However, this seems to have changed in 2024 when Moses Kafeero, also a career policeman was appointed new director for human resource development and training to replace Brigadier Godfrey Golooba a senior UPDF soldier.
The president also recalled Maj Gen Abel Kandiho who was the Chief of Joint Staff in Police, a position that has since its creation in 2022, has seen only UPDF soldiers serving in it.
Gen Jack Bakasumba was the maiden holder of the position of the Chief of Joint Staff in Police, a position similar to UPDF’s Chief of Joint Staff .
However, unlike the UPDF structure, in police the roles of the Chief of Joint Staff are not spelt out.
By the look of things, it seems the president has decided to drop that position in the police because for over six months, he has never appointed a new office holder since the recalling of Maj Gen Kandiho.
However, despite this, there are still UPDF officers still serving in the police including AIGP Christopher Ddamulira, the Crime Intelligence Director, AIGP Tom Mgambo, the CID director and AIGP Jesse Kamunanwire, the Human Resource Administration director.
While still serving as the Inspector General of Police in 2019, Okoth Ochola said the UPDF officers bring a great wealth of knowledge to police to help help build capacity.
“Some of the areas where police has drawn best practices from the UPDF include intelligence gathering, supervision, and discipline, handling highly risky and confrontational situations,” Ochola said.
