National Security - Uganda at a glance

For the last 20 years or so the Republic of Uganda has been working on issues of national security in order to safeguard the integrity of it's territory, people and institutions. The country has had turbulent times from bomb attacks in the late 90s, robbers, rebels, and many other lawless groups which have terrorized the nation.

National security is of a profound influence towards governance and plays a major role during elections worldwide. Of all the turbulent times we have passed through, it's evident that the Ministry of Defense (MoD) has been working tirelessly and as a matter of fact it's one of the ministries which are highly funded by the government during allocation of funds in the national budget. The Ministry of Defense has many spin off intelligence operatives and all these suck tax payers money. But how efficient have these bodies performed to safeguard the country?

Matters regarding national security are private and not discussed in the media, that's the norm worldwide but there's ongoing debate how those in charge are ready to protect and execute their duties. 

Police

The police is there to keep law and order, although the organisation as a whole isn't well funded but currently it's headed by an army general. Is the Police professional enough to deal with issues concerning people? People are murdered in the city and always the number 999 is dialed but amazingly they only show up hours after the crime has been committed, evidence has been tampered with, and in worst cases they collect dead bodies to take to the mortuary. H.E President Museveni spoke of professionalizing the army, shouldn't the police be professionalized too?

The police force is lacking requirements to be used, and in most cases the patrol cars are stationed in places where they can only get culprits who in turn bribe them, how can such people protect the nation? In one way or another you don't blame them because they are paid peanuts and these folks have large families, so they need to devise means for ends to meet. Police officers live in dilapidated estates which i assume were constructed years ago during Obote's regime, shouldn't the current administration be ashamed and at least make  an initiative to make sure an organ which keeps law and order live a comfortable life?

Cyber Security

Africa is a continent which is still in it's infant stage in Internet use. This scenario means that we lack expertise in dealing with cyber attacks. Recently the MoD website was hacked into and it displayed terrorists images and information for close to a month! As a matter of fact even after the media reported the issue in print, still the website took a couple of days online before it was shut down, currently when you search for the MoD website Uganda it's offline for close to two weeks. I think the MoD should show us examples that they are able to deal with all attacks to make sure we are confident that we are safe. If the whole MoD which is at the epitome of national security took ages to realise that it's website had been hacked into, and it took weeks for the website to be shut, how are they ready to coordinate when their systems which have sensitive information are hacked into?

Recently a directive was given to army officers to cease using cellphones while discussing issues regarding national security, isn't it time that the army by now from the previous elections that it would have been professional enough and with an advanced infrastructure of communication and sharing information which is encrypted? 

Surveillance Systems

I am wondering how equipped is the country in matters regarding surveillance. When the country was anticipating for CHOGM, surveillance cameras were installed in the city, it beats my understanding, is national security only concerned about visitors or we Ugandans? Many individuals are robbed on Kampala streets either during day or night, why can't we take the lead and throw in surveillance cameras as many as we can and protect the city and our people? I would be happy to pay high taxes as long as I know that every 50 meter radius in the central business district there's big brother watching to track down law offenders.

Security

School fires have been on the rise, isn't it time to make it compulsory for surveillance systems to be a must especially in boarding schools?. I turned to google earth and zoomed in on a number of Uganda's sensitive security spots, and amazingly all these spots are there for the whole world to see. Personally I had never been to Mbuya, Bombo, inside State Houses of Nakasero and Entebbe, Nakasongola and all other defense premises, google earth brought it to me all these pictures in detail, isn't the duty of the MoD to make sure matters regarding national security are private and such places should be obscured, or cut out by google earth? But why is it such private places are exposed to terrorists and yet the current administration is thinking of fighting Kony yet google earth is exposing our most sensitive enterprises?

The world and it's increase in use of technology  has made sure that this information is readily available to the media and it's the duty of the individuals concerned to write to google and inform them of the breach of privacy. Perimeter fences around barracks are not important yet one can easily zoom in through google earth! MoD something has to be done.

Another issue regarding security is immigration and border control. How secure are our borders? From a quick view having travelled through Malaba and Busia on different occasions these two border posts actually have no big brother (surveillance cameras) unless they were installed recently. But I think we need these systems to work, smart systems with face recognition capabilities. The world's busiest airport Heathrow, and other British airports for you to board the airplane you pass through metal detectors twice, infact shoes, belts are scanned, at Entebbe you are scanned once, you don't remove your shoes and belts, although metal detectors have false alarms, how secure is our airport against terrorist attacks if one can board an airplane having shoes and other bodily items unscanned?

There should be some really big changes before catastrophes appear, is that what is called disaster preparedness? I think there's a ministry like that but I wonder whether it's only concerned about natural phenomena and even during disaster nothing is done. All in all regarding security we should ask ourselves, is our data in banks secure, emails we receive and send are they secure, how about our ATM cards and credit cards? How about the mushrooming shopping arcades and hypermarkets are they really safe and secure such that in an event of an attack the population is protected? How secure is Uganda's infrastructure against terrorism, are there trained personnel to ensure safety?

Sensitive arrears which can dwarf the country's economy are airports, dams, and the central business district, is the MoD and it's security organs working day and night to safeguard the safety of of dams, airports and Kampala as a whole? Imagine if the dam at Jinja ceased functioning the country would be in turmoil.

It was reported that many individuals through corrupt channels in the ministry of internal affairs dished out passports even to non Ugandans, it looks to be just a tip of an iceberg, a big problem facing many government entities which make up the country's national security organs The police an organ under Internal affairs ministry is one of the leading corrupt government organs, how are they able to keep law and order?, How about the judiciary cited also to be corrupt, do we still have rule of law and fairness?.

How professional is the army? Do we have modern defense equipment able to safeguard our territory against attacks? Are our soviet Migs able to guard our airspace against intruders? do we have modern reconnaissance birds which I suppose would have helped us in tracking Kony coupled with sophisticated military encrypted satellite signals from developed nations. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) would play a major role in combat. We still need modern equipment in professionalizing the army, and having well educated officers behind controls.

National Security is a major concern to many countries even the super powers like USA. Currently US is concerned how their department of defense is ready to avert terrorist attacks, cyber attacks, and the use of satellite surveillance systems. It's through watching grown ups that the young learn, I think we can borrow a leaf from the US administration how they safeguard their population and how they tackle matters regarding national security.