Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Enock Abeine has been appointed the Chief Security Officer (CSO) of Makerere University replacing the jolly, talkative and students’ favourite Suprietendant of Police (SP) Jackson Mucunguzi. The reshuffle comes in amidst never ending demonstrations countrywide against the amendment of Art. 102 (b) of Uganda’s constitution that seeks to removal age limit to the presidency which Makerere has visibly participated in.
SP Mucunguzi, according to a note from the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Gen. Kale Kayihura, has been secured a position at Bwebajja police training school and will be undertaking a Senior Command and Staff Course (SCSC).
Mucunguzi holds a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) in Oil and Gas and had been tipped for PhD studies abroad.
Sources within the Police allege however, that the reshuffle comes in as counter measures to control growing influence of the officer and instances of over qualification in future since SP Mucunguzi has been taking on further studies without the knowledge of senior officials within the Police.
“He is being diverted because they know he would leave the Police if he becomes overly qualified,” our source said.
Consequently in our investigation, we intercepted a letter dated 17th October, 2017 from Umar Kakumba (PhD) of Makerere University’s College of Business and Management Sciences (CoBAMS) and SP Mucunguzi appears on a list of 14 public servants that had been awarded a scholarship to study Masters of Public Infrastructure Management (MPIM) under the Pan African Capacity Building Programme (PACBP).
The PACBP Scholarship list that we intercepted included high ranking government officials who, together with SP Mucunguzi, are supposed to attend the 2 year programme. In addition to that, Campus Bee is privy to information that SP Mucunguzi has been undertaking an online Doctorate (PhD) in Security Studies where he paid $100 as enrollment fee in September this year.
The allegation that Police could be worried about SP Mucunguzi’s over qualification on grounds of education may be true since some promotions in the forces have been done majorly on grounds of educational qualification and it would be absurd for them to leave out some individuals that rightly possess the papers. Our source, who preferred anonymity (on everything; gender and name), also criticised the Police’s mode of operation and means in which the reshuffle seems to have been executed.
“The IGP’s directive hadn’t been officially drafted but the piece of paper had already circulated WhatsApp groups of Ugandans even abroad. More so, the paper is dated February, 2017. This isn’t good public relations for the police”, our source intimated.
Mucunguzi’s transfer takes effect immediately and he is required at Bwebajja as early as Monday 23rd October, 2017.
Efforts to get a comment from Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe on the matter were futile as the vice chancellor didn’t pick up our calls.
From the opposition circles within Makerere however, SP Mucunguzi had long been viewed as an NRM mole within the institution due to his ability to curtail some demonstrations before they even kick off.
“The man is in all our student WhatsApp groups and you can’t tell which number is his or not his”, a Uganda Young Democrats (UYD) Makerere chapter enthusiast told Campus Bee.
This allegation comes in due to the fact that Mucunguzi served in the 2008 guild government of Robert Rutaro.
Rutaro, who works at the NRM secretariat now, became guild president on an NRM ticket and could be the last one to do so in modern Makerere history.
In that government, the former Makerere police boss served as guild Security Minister.
Mucunguzi’s influence had been on a steady rise within Makerere and the neighborhood and we wait to see what this reshuffle means for the young and clearly ambitious police officer.
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