Police need sh227.5b for national CCTV project phase III

KAMPALA - The implementation of the third phase of the national CCTV (closed-circuit television) project by the Uganda Police Force (UPF) will require an additional $62m (about shillings 227.5 billion).

Police undersecretary Aggrey Wunyi made the revelations, while appearing before Parliament's defence and internal affairs committee on March 11, 2025.

Wunyi said the project is still at the design and budget solicitation stage.
Internal affairs state minister David Muhoozi and Inspector General of Police (IGP) Abbas Byakagaba led members of the Force to the committee meeting. 

 System operating above 80%

The minister added that the already implemented phases I and II of the national CCTV system are performing at an average ranging from 85 per cent to 95 per cent with some districts achieving 100 per cent performance.

Muhoozi added that the system has so far covered all the 19 Kampala Metropolitan policing divisions and all municipalities including Masaka, Mbarara, Ntungamo, Kabale, Kisoro, Arua, Gulu, Iganga and Jinja.

The other municipalities covered include Rukungiri, Bushenyi, Kasese, Fort Portal, Mubende, Mityana, Hoima, Masindi, Kitgum, Lira, Soroti, Moroto, Mbale, Kapchorwa, Tororo and Kamuli.

“Since implementation of the system in 2018, 42,417 operational and intelligence-led incidents have been managed and 6,688 cases have undergone thorough investigation using the footage captured,” Muhoozi said.

Closing gaps

He said phase III of the project seeks to close the gaps identified in the initial phases by increasing camera density to reduce blind spots, introducing body-worn cameras for Police officers and enhancing the capacity of the data centre to support growing storage and processing needs.

“The system has to keep running because UPF recruited qualified IT personnel and engineers to do maintenance of the system. Only continuous training on new upgrades of the system is required,” Muhoozi added.

Legislators, however, queried the effectiveness of the CCTV cameras.

Committee chairperson Wilson Kajwengye asked about the ability of the cameras to operate efficiently during power outages affecting different parts of the country.

“We have had incidences where the main grid goes off. Does that affect your cameras or do the cameras have capacity to keep running despite such challenges? Is this also the case throughout the country?” Kajwengye said.

Peter Okeyoh (NRM, Bukooli Island County) asked the UPF leadership to provide the measures being taken to prevent vandalism of CCTV systems in the field, including during construction works like road maintenance.

Kagoma North County MP Kintu Brandon asked about the feasibility of the national CCTV system in incorporating footage captured by private CCTV cameras.

“We have cameras installed in private places like supermarkets, bars, hotels or homes. How do you link them to your main CCTV centre in cases of crimes where you need to check their footage?” Kintu asked.

Muhoozi clarified that the national system is not connected to the private CCTV cameras.

“We only use volunteer information from those with personal cameras. We also do not have a legal regime that governs private cameras and how they can offer input in the national grid of cameras because there are privacy issues involved,” Muhoozi said.

To tackle vandalism, Muhoozi noted that CCTV cameras are mounted on poles covered with spikes to deter persons from climbing to destroy the camera systems.

UPF ICT director Felix Baryamwisaki said the CCTV system has robust provisions to manage the inconsistencies of power supply.

“The camera sites have power backup of up to eight hours. If the main grid goes off beyond that, we get affected but the main monitoring centres remain operational because they have longer backup hours,” Baryamwisaki said.

He added that power access in cities has greatly improved with power outages of not more than four hours adding that there are plans to install solar systems at CCTV sites in areas with long power outages.