KAMPALA – The army leadership has started registering 30,570 crime preventers in Ntungamo District ahead of integrating them into the Reserve Force.
The Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr George Bakunda, said 30 crime preventers from every village in the district will be enlisted into the Reserve Force.
“I have instructed the former sub-county crime preventer coordinators to get 30 people (who trained as crime preventers, men and women) in every village in all 1019 villages in the district, who are able-bodied and energetic, who are not criminals; who are not involved in any other government structure. We need people who are patriotic and available all the time,” Mr Bakunda said in an interview on Monday.
Mr Bakunda said crime preventers in Ntungamo will be under the command of Col. Isaac Ndyamuba who is also Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) programme coordinator for Kajara county and Lt. Col. Ivan Mworozi, the OWC coordinator for Ruhaama county.
“Crime preventers were active then, but it has been long since these crime preventers stopped working and their fate has been uncertain. So we need to streamline them to start working ahead of general elections because they did a tremendous work and their phasing out has increased criminality in the communities,” he added.
The Second Division Army Spokesperson, Major Charles Kabona, said verification and recruitment of crime preventers into auxiliary force or reserve force is ongoing across the country.
“Last year, the Commander of Reserve Force Lt. Gen Charles Otema met all RDCs from Western Region at Lake View Resort Hotel and directed them to look for them (crime preventers) but not for purposes of involving them in politics,” Maj. Kabona said on Tuesday.