MUSEVENI’S WISH ALWAYS TO BE ON THE SMART SIDE MISSES THE POINT

When one reads the Observer story as regards President Museveni’s reaction given the operation to curb accidents on the roads, the President comes out to condemn the Police.  We need to get this in the right perspective.  The salaries of Policemen don’t make sense as do many of other civil servants.  In this case, the Police have come to the roads to see that the drivers are responsible people.  If since the operation was started, there have been reduced recorded accidents, the Police is credited.  I don’t think anybody will give or bribe to a policeman when he is not guilty.  President Museveni should stop coming out as always the Mr. Clean.  There is need to act on the drunken driving; and the ranks of Uganda as regards drinking alcohol show the situation clearly.

Many of the people who die on Uganda roads leave a number of dependants and what the Police are doing is a commendable job.  In the situation that anybody is asked for money, I think there is the right channel to deal with the situation.

William Kituuka. Kiwanuka

Museveni blasts police over drink driving

  

Friday, 19 April 2013 00:54

Written by Edward Ssekika

   

President Museveni

Move against drink driving hurting tax collections

There are signs the police-led drink driving crackdown is slipping into negative territory, with President Museveni becoming its harshest critic. The president is particularly angered that the police crackdown has degenerated into a binge for the police to extort money from the public. The police introduced the operations, late last year, in a move aimed at curbing traffic accidents. But concerns were raised when the police literally changed the law to incriminate anyone driving with the slightest trace of alcohol in their blood.

The Observer has learnt that the president voiced his frustrations at a recent meeting with senior police officers. Without denying or confirming the president’s concerns, the Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, Dr Stephen Kasiima, turned on the media for failing the operation.

“You [media] are just bent on spoiling people’s jobs,” said Kasiima and declined to speak further. When contacted, Kampala Metropolitan traffic chief Lawrence Niwabiine, just hung up.

A senior police officer, who preferred not to be named, told this writer that the president was upset at the way police had abused the operation by extorting money from motorists. A similar operation to arrest marauding thugs in Kampala and its suburbs was stopped by police over similar concerns of abuse and extortion by some police officials. The source said the president first lambasted police officials, shortly after passing out more than 5,000 police constables at Kabalye police training school in Masindi district early this month.

“He even ordered for a reshuffle in the traffic department of the police force,” the source said. The president is also reported to have narrated how one day, while on a trip to eastern Uganda, he found traffic officers who stopped several vehicles and in less than five minutes they let them go.

“He wondered how traffic officers can check five cars in less than five minutes,” a source said.

Complaints

Several industry stakeholders, ranging from brewers, nightclubs and bar owners have attacked the operations, after they watched their sales drop. The Observer was also told that beer companies had complained to both the Finance ministry and President Museveni about the operations, although this information could not be independently verified by press time. The proprietor of Amnesia club in Kampala, Dr Innocent Nahabwe, admitted that the drink driving operation was affecting his business negatively.

“Alcohol contributes greatly to the economy in direct and indirect taxes, but our sales are going down due to the drink driving operation,” he said. “The crackdown is just meant to embarrass everyone who drinks.”

Nile Breweries Corporate Affairs Director, Francis Onapito Ekomoloit, said though they supported the operation, it was being abused by the police.

“It is within our policy of not driving under the influence of alcohol, but we are against the way police inhumanely handles the suspects; extorting money, manhandling and even parading them before cameras and the press,” he said.

Asked if the operation had affected the beer sales, Onapito said: “We have not quantified the loss in terms of sales, but definitely it has an effect”.

Putting suspects on camera, Onapito says, violates a person’s constitutional right of being innocent till proven guilty. He said the operation had become a show of some sort.

“We are in a dialogue with police to enforce the law but in a decent way,” Onapito said. “Alcohol is not a problem; it has been around for centuries. The only problem is the abuse.”  

ssekika@observer.ug

Uganda tops Africa in alcohol consumption

By ABDU KIYAGA

Posted  Saturday, March 16   2013 at  02:00

IN SUMMARY

A CNN study ranks the country 8th in the world and first on the continent in liquor intake, with home-made waragi and Ajono, toping the alcohol menu.

KAMPALA

Ugandans consume more alcohol than counterparts in any African country, demonstrating the citizens’ abiding love for liquor, according to a survey done by US broadcaster Cable News Network (CNN).

Titled ‘World’s 10 best-drinking nations’, Uganda is ranked 8th globally ahead of Germany and Australia at positions 9 and 10, respectively. The worst drinkers in the world, according to the ranking, are British nationals who use bars to crack deals, initiate and end relationships, settle scores and overcome their “traditional reserve”.

In Uganda’s case, the study says patrons generously drink “waragi, also known as war gin because it was once used to fortify troops. Though drinking too much inevitably leads to surrender.”

“Uganda leads its African neighbours for alcohol intake, largely thanks to a rampant trade in illegally made rotgut and a winning formula of booze made from bananas,” the broadcaster noted in its study published online yesterday. The ranking offered no benchmarks or figures, making it impossible to determine how scientific or not the research was.

That notwithstanding, the report captures fairly correctly that many Ugandans, especially in the central region, offset hangover by enjoying Luwombo; a meal with saucy meat or chicken cooked in banana leaves.

Ajono, a semi-fermented beer drunk from communal pots using long straws, which is most popular among the Itesot, is another of the country’s favourite alcoholic drinks, CNN noted.

Intake of colossal amounts of potent gins and other forms of crude liquor in mostly poverty-stricken rural communities and urban slums has raised health alarm amid declining productivity by affected youth.

Uganda’s endowed mostly take beer as well in generous quantities that police recently stepped up surveillance to catch intoxicated motorists and pedestrians, arguing both present risk to themselves and other road users. Other countries in descending ranking on CNN’s ‘World’s 10 best-drinking nations’ list include China, Russia, France, Ecuador, Moldova and South Korea.

akiyaga@ug.nationmedia.com