In a press statement sent to Uganda Radio Network, the NRM says that security was invited because the heightened political season has put security on high alert following the detection of large numbers of coordinated groups operating in the field
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Part of the team that will protect Museveni's votes
The National Resistance Movement (NRM) has explained
circumstances under which members of the security forces attended the launch of
the President Museveni Vote Protection team.
This follows Wednesday’s event held at the NRM National
Chairpersons office in which some security officials openly declared support for the vote protection team.
Among the vote protection team unveiled on Wednesday were
Regional Security Officers, Crime Intelligence Officers, District Internal
Security Officers and Resident District Commissioners. Members of the Uganda
Police Force, Uganda Peoples Defense Forces, and the Internal Security
Organization also attended the event.
Although the UPDF officers did not speak at the event but attended, others like the Deputy Director
Internal Security Organisation (ISO) Emmy Katabazi and the Director Criminal
Intelligence at Uganda Police Chris Damulira Serunjogi openly expressed their support.
At the event, Saleh Kamba the
head of political intelligence and operations at the office of the National
chairperson of NRM also told the meeting that President Museveni was the
boss to Security and Civil servants, and therefore many of them should not be
saying they are civil servants who cannot support the interest of the
Principle.
Now in a press statement sent to Uganda Radio Network, the NRM says that security was invited because the heightened
political season has put security on high alert following the detection of
large numbers of coordinated groups operating in the field, and as a result,
security agencies are taking steps to closely monitor the many existing groups
to prevent them from being infiltrated by hostile elements.
NRM says that one of such groups is the coordinators and Presidential Vote
Protectors (PVPs) under President Yoweri Museveni’s NRM office based
at Kyambogo.
Faruk Kirunda, the administrator at the NRM Chairman's office says that on Wednesday, during the flagging off of the
coordinators and 'PVPs' at Kyambogo, officers from police and ISO only attended to witness the occasion. Kirunda says security has cleared this group.
“Security has been
concerned about the recruitment of these teams," Kirunda said. "You can imagine when you are
recruiting hundreds of thousands of people, security has to know. So we invited
them to come and see that the group is genuine and composed of people known to
us. We explained to them the roles of the coordinators and 'PVPs'. The officers
in turn provided guidance on how the teams can operate without causing security
problems.”
He says that although the presence of security officers
at Kyambogo had raised concern since they are supposed to remain
impartial, they did not actually join the coordinators but their involvement
was and will be at security strategic level to prevent impersonation and
infiltration by criminal elements who may want to use the campaign season to
cause insecurity in the country.
“I commend security for being vigilant," Kirunda added. "It shows that they
are working and will protect Ugandans as they go for elections. I urge all
groups to notify security of their activities so as to be guided properly and
to prevent being disrupted by enforcers who may not be aware of their
activities. This will help us have peaceful
elections.”
Security organs will work under the inter agency arrangement
for the elections.
The NRM's vote protectors in total are about 150, 000 drawn from
all sub-regions of the country. They will serve as polling agents and election observers
for Museveni who is the Presidential Flagbearer for
NRM.
"In the past, Museveni did not have such an organised group
and it cost him many votes which were allegedly lost in the process of tallying
and transmitting especially in areas where opposition is most active,“ Kirunda
says.
He says the Office of the National Chairpersons plan is to
follow up every vote starting from door-to-door and person-to-person.
“Also present at Kyambogo were officers from UPDF
who emphasized their role of securing Uganda as Ugandans go to the
polls from January 14 onwards”, Kirunda added.
