11 people murdered every day – report

Police block former Buganda Kingdom prime minister J.B Walusimbi from visiting Kayunga. The action by police sparked off violence in Kampala and other districts in Uganda.

By ANDREW BAGALA

In Summary

Annual Crime Report shows increase in crime, with 100,465 cases recorded in 2012 compared to 99,321 registered in 2011. Defilement, theft of cash, theft of mobile phones and assault top list of reported crimes.

 

KAMPALA

The number of people killed daily in the country has increased from 10 in 2011 to 11 in 2012 as the general crime rate rose by 1 per cent, according to a new report issued by the police.

The Annual Crime and Traffic/Road Safety Report shows that the number of people killed rose from 3,753 in 2011 to 4,161 in 2012, an increase by about 10 per cent.

The Inspector General of Police, General Kale Kayihura, said the developments were cause for worry and needed to be investigated. “I am not happy with the trend of crime. I want a research on why the crime trend has stagnated,” Gen Kayihura said while launching the report yesterday in Kampala.

This is the first time since 2006 that the crime rate has taken an upward trend. At least 273,957 cases were registered of which 100,465 were criminal in nature last year compared to 268,811 cases registered in 2011 of which 99,321 were criminal.

Although there was a significant increase in the cases taken to court, the total number still remained less than 50 per cent.


The report shows that 48,480 cases were taken to court last year compared to 43,813 taken in 2011.

Corruption, defilement, robbery and economic crimes continued to increase.


Gen Kayihura said the increase in corruption cases was a result of vigilance among public servants other than more incidents.

Graft cases up
Police registered 214 corruption cases, which was a 43 per cent increase in 2012 from 150 cases reported in 2011. Economic crimes rose by 15 per cent from 9,574 cases in 2011 to 11,006 in 2012. The report showed a rise of 5 per cent of cases of defilement from 7,690 in 2011 to 8,076 cases in 2012.

Road and traffic safety statistics showed a decline in death on the road from 3,343 people in 2011 to 3,124 last year. Despite increase in police presence in urban areas and highways through the Integrated Highway Patrol System, robbery cases (both simple and aggravated) increased by 0.5 per cent in 2012 from 4,174 in 2011.

At least 236 cases of aggravated robbery of cash, 43 cases of aggravated robbery of motor vehicles and 241 cases of aggravated robbery of motorcycles were registered in 2012. According to the report, these crimes were mostly reported in Jinja, Kampala and Kabale districts.

Aggravated robbery cases involve use of lethal weapons. Another worrying crime trend is the increase of cyber, electronic mobile money fraud crimes where victims have lost billions of shillings to fraudsters.

At least 62 cases were reported where people’s emails were hacked and they lost Shs1.5 billion. Gen Kayihura in the report said Mobile Money Fraud: Between August and November 2012, Shs207m were transferred without authority from telecommunication service providers. He said in the same year, 700 people lost more than Shs1.2 billion by use of scheming devices from ATM locations in Kampala and other areas.

For the first time in more than 10 years, police reduced the traffic accidents by 10 per cent, which they attributed to increased manpower and equipment in the directorate.

Pedestrians and motorcycles are the leading victims of accidents on the road with 1,243 and 571 incidents respectively.

The report stated that the Speed Enforcement Unit was established after getting new speed guns and highway motorised patrols which has contained the road carnage. Police issued penalty tickets worth Shs13.7 billion of which Shs7 billion was paid in 2012.