Minister Otafiire asked to explain ‘variance’ in Police recruitment

PARLIAMENT | POLICE | OTAFIIRE

KAMPALA - Parliament has tasked the Internal Affairs Minister Gen. Kahinda Otafiire to explain what they called discrepancy in recruitment of Police personnel.

Police in March this year called for application for the positions of Police Constables and drivers totaling to 10150 .

According to the advert, the requirement was Ordinary Level of Education, Ugandan citizen with a valid National ID, must possess a UCE certificate or its equivalent and have no criminal record.

MP Dr. Abed Bwanika, however, informed the House that according to the shortlist, there was variance in the number of applicants per district and suspected that some names on the list for certain districts were not from there.

He cited an example of Masaka City, where he noted that the names were not from that district.

“Some districts such as Obongi have only 3 shortlisted candidates, Maracha (4), Mitoma (3), Madi Okollo (3), Gulu 33, so what formed such kind of numbers? Why was there over recruitment in some districts and under recruitment in others?” Bwanika asked.

He requested Parliament to direct the Minister to table a full list of the shortlisted applicants with their identities and also explain the variance.

State Minister for Internal Affairs Gen. David Muhoozi said he needed to verify the information and report back to the House.

“I want to verify the information and report back,” he said.

However, Police Spokesperson Fred Enanga explained that recruitment was based on quality and eligibility and not quotas.

“The qualification was that the candidate must have certain qualifications. If the district did not have people who met the requirement, then we could not recruit from there,” he said.