Govt breaks ground for CID modern data analysis centre

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The Government has commissioned the construction of a modern Criminal Investigations Directorate (CID) data analysis centre in Kibuli, Kampala.

Internal affairs minister Maj. Gen (rtd) Kahinda Otafiire officiated at the ground-breaking ceremony for the centre at the Police CID headquarters on Friday, April 11.

"I want to thank the IGP (Inspector General of Police), his deputy and the team. So far so good; I'm proud," he said.

He made the remarks a few minutes before he and two other government officials laid bricks at the construction site to symbolise the foundation stone-laying for the state-of-the-art facility.

He also hailed the CID director AIGP Tom Magambo for transforming CID.

"Every time I come here, I find Magambo has done something different. If you are a leader, make sure you leave a footprint; don't pass like a shadow," the minister said, urging other leaders to emulate the CID boss.

It is going to be a seven-floor building with a basement and a growth floor area of 6,380 square metres, according to the Police's director of logistics and engineering, James Apora. 

"All the requisite approvals have already been done and all the required taxes paid. If financed very well, the construction period will be 12 months. We commence work today, " he said at the launch.

Apora's team had already assembled the construction works machinery at the site, which Otafiire later flagged off. 

The Police Construction Department is the contractor and the Government is the funder. 

Abas Byakagaba, the IGP, thanked President Yoweri Museveni for accepting their request to establish the centre when he was at the CID in September last year.

He said they are now going to police in a scientific way.

"This is a 12-month project and I have no doubt that we are going to deliver. I'm glad that we are going to launch this project basing on our in-house capacity," he said.

Byakagaba also said he is proud and confident that he has a very strong engineering unit.

"We are going to acquire more equipment and this unit is going to perform at its best," he emphasised.

He and the Director of Public Prosecutions Lady Justice Jane Frances Abodo were the other two government officials to perform the ground-breaking ceremony.

Magambo said he was filled with joy and that their transformation journey is going to help serve the people of Uganda for many generations to come.

"Honourable minister (Otafiire) as you may know, since the 1930s when these buildings were set up, this is going to be the first seven-floor building you our elders are going to put here. So, for me, I'm filled with joy that we have something to celebrate and, therefore, our future generations will look back and will appreciate that we, the generation that lived at this time, also added something to what the colonists built," he said. 

The CID boss said the centre will enable the Police to centralise actionable intelligence, support predictive policing, and integrate spatial mapping of internal and transnational threats.