Over the past few days, Ugandans, especially city dwellers in Kampala and its suburbs, have witnessed a sharp increase in violent attacks from organized criminal gangs.
These range from machete-wielding thugs to boda-boda theft, bag-grabbing thieves, and the most recent round-kick thugs.
According to police spokesperson Fred Enanga, most of the arrested culprits are juvenile offenders (delinquents), who cannot be jailed together with adult offenders due to their age.
This leaves a lot of unanswered questions on whether it is the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end of increasing delinquency in Uganda.
Firstly, I appreciate the Uganda Police detectives and intelligence agencies for the swift action that has led to the arrest of the masterminds of every incident of robbery by the new gangs.
On the other hand, it is impossible to arrest all criminals in Uganda; I don’t believe the government has those facilities. If arresting all criminals happened, the country’s human resources would all end up in prisons.
There’s a need to evaluate the reasons why such violent criminality has continued to shape itself and how the causes could be dealt with.
Pro-active security policies would be seemingly better than waiting to arrest offenders because, as criminality gets used to society, it adapts to the environment, and the culprits evolve many ways to evade detection by authorities and law enforcement.
The factors that cause the crime are complex. These range from psychological, economic, and social circumstances that interact with each other, causing particular behaviors.
What is exactly causing such violent attacks?
It is interesting to observe what leads to juvenile delinquency, how it can be prevented, what is necessary for the rehabilitation of juveniles, and what programs are being implemented in this regard.
Many of these juvenile delinquents are earning their livelihoods on the streets. This could be because they lack parental care, and it is sometimes inevitable to find themselves in the wrong environment and “go astray.”
Childhood psychological trauma, violence, imitation of criminal authorities, family, and peer influence, among others, can also be cited as reasons for juvenile delinquency.
How do you expect such street kids to survive? It is inevitable that these will end up in criminal gangs that, on several occasions, will advance and introduce several criminal skills to survive.
As we are still focusing on the flying kicks and staging boda boda barriers, these gangs could be evolving new tricks.
These illegal gangs often pose significant challenges to law enforcement due to their clandestine nature. They adapt quickly to avoid detection and frequently change their routes and methods to continue their illegal activities.
But well, since when did such gangs become legal in societies? Are the territorial police commanders playing their roles? Why has organized criminality been inevitable since the end of ‘wembly operations’?
The new police administration and territorial commanders should revise the current operation policies of non-intervention and cohabitation with the gangs and merely seating in offices at police stations, which have provided a safe haven and comfortable environment for the gang to establish themselves, train, and organize themselves in camps.
Other than focusing energies on legal political activities, I believe focusing on police operations and crime intelligence can disband these criminal gangs completely because the operation and settlement bases are identifiable.
We don’t need ‘wembley’ anymore to stage roadblocks and shoot every suspect. These bases are known and organized and, therefore, can easily be disbanded to only deal with the remnants.
Will the police continue to cohabit with these organized criminal gangs, or will they disband them?
Well, we are waiting to hear from the new police administration. This is a welcome test! If the police administration has the names of these criminal gangs and their operational areas, then what next?
Is it the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end of the increasing juvenile delinquency in Uganda?
