[h=1]Who will arrest the decline in image of our policemen?[/h]
Being a police officer in East Africa has never been easy.
But when the media aims directly at you, when your constables behave in a manner that makes you want to disown them, while the public is losing faith in the force, the job of keeping law and order gets even trickier.
In Kampala, where police cause rivers of tears to flow whenever they unleash teargas on demonstrators, the public were last week treated to the sight of the forces top commander, Maj-Gen Kale Kayihura, in tears as he begged for forgiveness from an injured musician.
Some trigger-happy constables had for some unclear reason shot popular musician Bebe Cool four times in the thighs.
A contrite Gen Kayihura was photographed pleading at Bebe Cools hospital bedside.
So low is the forces image that soon after Kayihuras visit, the Commander in Chief, President Yoweri Museveni, also came calling.
Museveni reportedly left a thick brown envelope under Bebe Cools pillow to take care of all his bills and other personal needs.
So fat was Musevenis envelope that Bebe Cool didnt dare divulge the contents for fear of jealous peoples reactions.
He said that Museveni had promised to send an even thicker envelope should the need arise to fly him out of the country for further treatment.
In Dar es Salaam, the police were also facing an image problem that, strangely enough, arose out of their arresting an extortion suspect.
There was this journalist who was popular for exposing bribery of traffic officers, for which he even won an award last year.
Police recently arrested him alongside two hardcore criminals on suspicion of attempting to extort Tsh10 million (about $8,500) from an interdicted public official.
The publics reaction, to the latters dismay, was to blame the police, accusing them of setting the journalist up in revenge for his exposing traffic cops earlier.
The usually secretive police then went into overdrive, announcing every step of their investigation at press conferences and leaking even more interesting bits of evidence they had against the guy.
As for the Kenya police, heaven knows how they will ever fix their image of being an anti-people force.
And it did not start the other day during the post-election violence.
I spent half of 1992 and most of 1993 at Nairobis School of Journalism, where my classmates included Kenya police officers who joined us to become communications specialists.
One officer called Kingori Mwangi in particular became my friend and I only remember him as an argumentative intellectual and a good parent who had grand plans for his then three-year-old daughter.
Hardly the identikit befitting the brutal force that he represented.
He later became force spokesman and when he moved on to command duties, we lost contact.
Nairobi was the place for a journalist to be at the time, as power was being wrested from the mighty Kanu.
The Kenya polices worst enemy was a simple camera device called a zoom lens.
Newspapers would run detailed photos of the cops battering civilians, until the force and Kanu accused the Daily Nation of stage-managing the pictures.
Police in all the three countries look the same, especially the traffic personnel who all look several months pregnant and behave the same way.
Police should in fact be the first department to be run as one as we prepare the federation.
Just switch and rotate all policemen across the three countries.
Nobody will notice the difference.
Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International Fellow for Development Journalism. E-mail: jbuwembo@knight.icfj.org
Being a police officer in East Africa has never been easy.
But when the media aims directly at you, when your constables behave in a manner that makes you want to disown them, while the public is losing faith in the force, the job of keeping law and order gets even trickier.
In Kampala, where police cause rivers of tears to flow whenever they unleash teargas on demonstrators, the public were last week treated to the sight of the forces top commander, Maj-Gen Kale Kayihura, in tears as he begged for forgiveness from an injured musician.
Some trigger-happy constables had for some unclear reason shot popular musician Bebe Cool four times in the thighs.
A contrite Gen Kayihura was photographed pleading at Bebe Cools hospital bedside.
So low is the forces image that soon after Kayihuras visit, the Commander in Chief, President Yoweri Museveni, also came calling.
Museveni reportedly left a thick brown envelope under Bebe Cools pillow to take care of all his bills and other personal needs.
So fat was Musevenis envelope that Bebe Cool didnt dare divulge the contents for fear of jealous peoples reactions.
He said that Museveni had promised to send an even thicker envelope should the need arise to fly him out of the country for further treatment.
In Dar es Salaam, the police were also facing an image problem that, strangely enough, arose out of their arresting an extortion suspect.
There was this journalist who was popular for exposing bribery of traffic officers, for which he even won an award last year.
Police recently arrested him alongside two hardcore criminals on suspicion of attempting to extort Tsh10 million (about $8,500) from an interdicted public official.
The publics reaction, to the latters dismay, was to blame the police, accusing them of setting the journalist up in revenge for his exposing traffic cops earlier.
The usually secretive police then went into overdrive, announcing every step of their investigation at press conferences and leaking even more interesting bits of evidence they had against the guy.
As for the Kenya police, heaven knows how they will ever fix their image of being an anti-people force.
And it did not start the other day during the post-election violence.
I spent half of 1992 and most of 1993 at Nairobis School of Journalism, where my classmates included Kenya police officers who joined us to become communications specialists.
One officer called Kingori Mwangi in particular became my friend and I only remember him as an argumentative intellectual and a good parent who had grand plans for his then three-year-old daughter.
Hardly the identikit befitting the brutal force that he represented.
He later became force spokesman and when he moved on to command duties, we lost contact.
Nairobi was the place for a journalist to be at the time, as power was being wrested from the mighty Kanu.
The Kenya polices worst enemy was a simple camera device called a zoom lens.
Newspapers would run detailed photos of the cops battering civilians, until the force and Kanu accused the Daily Nation of stage-managing the pictures.
Police in all the three countries look the same, especially the traffic personnel who all look several months pregnant and behave the same way.
Police should in fact be the first department to be run as one as we prepare the federation.
Just switch and rotate all policemen across the three countries.
Nobody will notice the difference.
Joachim Buwembo is a Knight International Fellow for Development Journalism. E-mail: jbuwembo@knight.icfj.org