Why Gen Otafiire has lit up fire at police as he signs out

Maj Gen (rtd) Kahinda Otafiire, the former minister of Internal Affairs, didn’t mince his words about the leadership of the Uganda Police Force as he handed over office to the new minister last week.

As Prof Ephraim Kamuntu officially took the reins from Gen Otafiire as minister of Internal Affairs, the latter lamented that during his tenure, some police leaders turned a deaf ear to his instructions and instead went their own way.

“All was well until [Maj Gen Geoffrey] Katsigazi left. You remember we were doing well until this regime came in. Some of them were not listening. Their problem was not listening. You tell them, don’t do this [they do the contrary],” Gen Otafiire said last week. Maj Gen Katsigazi had served as Deputy Inspector General of Police and later as Acting Inspector General of Police before President Museveni appointed Mr Abas Byakagaba as IGP and Mr James Ocaya as his deputy.

Barely a day after leaving the ministry, Gen Otafiire took to his X platform, posting: “Hon Professor @KamuntuProf, I forgot to tell you, please don’t tolerate any form of extrajudicial killings, especially by a few rogue officers in the Crime Intelligence Directorate.” When the Daily Monitor sought Mr Byakagaba’s reaction to his former supervisor’s remarks, he kept his cards close to his chest. “I have no comment. I can’t comment,” IGP Byakagaba said yesterday. Maj Gen Damulira, the director of Crime Intelligence, too, brushed off the statement. “It is politics and blackmail,” Gen Damulira said on Saturday. Initially, Gen Otafiire got along well with Mr Byakagaba at first, and even said publicly that he was so proactive compared with the former IGP Martins Ochola.

But by the time Gen Otafiire left the ministry, he wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with Mr Byakagaba and some of the police directors, including Gen Damulira. Mr Byakagaba skipped the handover meeting at the Internal Affairs Ministry headquarters last week, sending his deputy, Mr Ocaya, in his stead. Police directors also gave the event a wide berth. After the 2021 General Election, Gen Otafiire and Gen Damulira had worked hand in glove, with Gen Otafiire commending him for investigations into cases involving National Unity Platform supporters.

In December 2022, during the Police Council at Police Headquarters in Naguru, Gen Otafiire sang the praises of Maj Gen Damulira for chasing down NUP’s claims about tortured supporters. “I have discovered that some of the people who were taken for a demonstration were boda boda accident victims. People took to Nairobi boda boda accident victims and claimed that they were victims of torture,” Maj Gen Otafiire said. “This is criminal, and those people who did that should be brought to book. This is not politics. It has gone beyond the boundary of politics. It has become criminal. This is treason,” he added.

Security sources said the duo’s friendship hit the rocks after Gen Otafiire and Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, now Chief of Defence Forces, locked horns over the latter succeeding his father, Mr Yoweri Museveni, as president of Uganda. “When the exchange was so intense, both were invited by Gen Salim Saleh for a ceasefire. Unfortunately, Gen Muhoozi went with Maj Gen Damulira, who is supervised by Gen Otafiire. From that day, their relationship turned sour around 2024,” a source said. Gen Otafiire often accused personnel from the Directorate of Crime Intelligence of playing fast and loose with the law by torturing suspects and carrying out illegal arrests. In earlier interviews with the Daily Monitor, Maj Gen Damulira didn’t sweep such allegations under the rug.

He admitted that illegal actions like torture and arrests existed among some of his personnel but insisted they were the handiwork of individuals who, once unmasked, were brought to heel. A senior police officer told this publication that Gen Otafiire, as chairperson of the Police Authority - the highest police organ - had no bone to pick with Mr Byakagaba himself, but clashed with many directors, especially those seated on the Policy Advisory Committee (PAC). “I doubt that they would even talk to each other on the phone. For more than a year, Gen Otafiire didn’t call any meeting with the police. Not even one for the preparation plan for the General Elections,” a source said.

The source chalked up the frosty relationship between Gen Otafiire and the police leadership to a mixed bag of issues; land wrangles, irregular promotions, divided loyalties, and contested tenders. Months after Gen Otafiire had been appointed Minister of Internal Affairs in 2021, he declared that top of his to do list was improving the welfare and housing of the police and other agencies under his wing. Gen Otafiire championed a public private procurement project to build 69,000 housing units for personnel in the police, prisons, and immigration services. In February 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs threw its weight behind Edicomsa International, a Spanish company, to spearhead accommodation development for the three institutions. Police, then under Mr Ochola’s leadership, raised eyebrows and protested the deal, doubting the company’s very existence.

The brass feared the police might end up losing their land to private investors in the bargain. That was the red flag that prompted the finance ministry to sound the alarm, questioning Edicomsa International’s proposals since the firm hadn’t laid its cards on the table about costs, construction sites, or repayment plans. The Solicitor General also slammed the brakes on direct procurement, insisting instead on competitive bidding for private investors. The finance ministry directed the formation of a technical committee, as required by procurement rules.

The committee was tasked with nailing down land ownership, house designs, and repayment modalities. During the 2022 Police Council at Naguru Headquarters, Gen Otafiire accused the committee of dragging its feet and failing to clear the air on queries raised by the finance ministry. He gave the police Under Secretary, Mr Aggrey Wunyi, and his colleagues 90 days to tie up loose ends on the accommodation project or face the axe. Mr Ochola’s leadership, together with Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MFPED) officials, kept throwing spanners in the works until they were sure the government wouldn’t lose its land. Gen Otafiire was far from pleased with these developments.

Accommodation standoff

In November 2023, during the pass out of police and immigration officers at Police Training School in Kabalye, Masindi District, he tore into officials from the MFPED for dragging their heels on the accommodation projects. “Let me take this opportunity to accuse the Ministry of Finance that if it wasn’t for their bureaucratic methods of handling things, we would have gone far. The housing situation for these three institutions is pathetic,” Maj Gen Otafiire told President Museveni. “So, Your Excellency, I would like you to fire the officers in the Ministry of Finance to finish the PPP (Public Private Partnership) project thing. You know when I talk, they think I am small, and I am a troublemaker. But I will not keep quiet,” he said. When Mr Ochola’s term ended and he bowed out of the police in March 2024, the acting IGP, Maj Gen Katsigazi, put the housing project back on the table.

Two months later, Mr Byakagaba was appointed IGP. Gen Otafiire painted Mr Byakagaba as forward-thinking, unlike Mr Ochola, who often hid behind the letter of the law to dodge his directives. Once Mr Byakagaba settled into the hot seat, he began to question Otafiire’s marching orders. The two locked horns after the Ministry of Internal Affairs allowed private developers to carve out part of the Criminal Investigations Directorate’s land in Kibuli. Although the minister had green lit the takeover, Mr Byakagaba dug in his heels, insisting the land belonged to the police. A source said the matter snowballed all the way to the president, who stepped in and slammed the door on the investors. Gen Otafiire then wrote to the parties, confirming that the land was police property.

In September 2024, CID Director Tom Magambo told President Museveni during his visit to CID headquarters at Kibuli, that he was ready to nab the “mafias” trying to steal police land. Mr Magambo added that Gen Otafiire had settled the land issue, affirming it was police-owned. The thorny issue of promotions also drove a wedge between Gen Otafiire and the police leadership. While handing over office last week, Gen Otafiire lamented that the police brass had let him down in his bid to elevate officers. “Like the promotions. How many times have I called for promotions? I want to promote this number. And they would say ‘we aren’t ready.’ My friend,” Gen Otafiire said. A police source involved in the process confirmed they had shelved the promotion lists after uncovering massive irregularities in June 2023. “The police sent a list of officers recommended to be promoted to the chairman of the Police Authority.

But when the promotion list came out, it had over 300 names of officers who hadn’t been recommended for promotion. Undeserving officers got promotions while their seniors were not,” the source said. At least 1,638 police officers were promoted, including seven senior commissioners, 17 commissioners, and several other senior officers. The source revealed that the promotion list was riddled with deserters, deceased officers, and individuals with criminal records, a recipe for embarrassment that left the police red faced. “There is a lady who deserted the police and fled to Canada. She was on the promotion list. She laughed at us on her social media platforms,” a source said. The senior officer noted that the fiasco forced them to tread carefully when sending promotion lists to the chairman of the Police Authority. Since the 2023 debacle, only a handful of police officers have managed to climb the ladder.

Another bone of contention that set the police leadership at loggerheads with their immediate supervisor was the CCTV camera maintenance deal, which the Internal Affairs Ministry awarded to a private company, Dealan Associates Limited. According to sources, despite the minister’s insistence that the company be paid, the police did not. The company was contracted to provide services worth Shs26b. The standoff escalated, prompting the parties to seek President Museveni’s intervention. Mr Museveni ordered parallel investigations by the Internal Security Organisation and the State House Anti Corruption Unit.

In his May 26, 2026 letter to the head of public service, Mr Museveni directed that the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Lt Gen Joseph Musanyufu, and the Police Under Secretary, Mr Aggrey Wunyi, be sent on forced leave for six months while the Anti Corruption Unit got to the bottom of the matter. As Gen Otafiire signed off, he told the police leadership that he wasn’t done with them.

“And don’t think I have left the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We are from Fronasa (the Front for National Salvation, a rebel group that was led by Mr Museveni in the 1970s). I told you. You people play around… You people work for promotion. For us, work for what we believe. That is why we put our lives on the line to ensure that we improve the lives of the people. So, professor, he will help you. I am comfortable with him (DIGP Ocaya),” Gen Otafiire said.

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