General Kale Kayihura has penned an 8-page letter asking for a contract extension as Inspector General of Police.

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Kayihura, whose contract runs out in Octoberr, has appealed to the police authority for an extension of his contract for among many things allowing him to grow the force into a modern, professional, service-oriented, pro-people, and effective institution.

Kayihura notes in his letter dated July 17 that he has a lot of ‘unfinished business’ in the force that requires an extension of his contract.

In his letter Kayihura confesses to an increase in the flow of gun crime in the country and drug trafficking.  He says the region is awash with firearms, supplied by a network of organised criminal groups involved in trafficking in small arms and light weapons that are well linked in the region and beyond. The police chief says Uganda is no longer a transit but is, now, a destination of hard drugs.

Kayihura is serving his second term as the Inspector General of police since his appointment in 2005. When it expires on 10th October, he will be hoping for the Police Authority, the highest organ of the force, to recommend him to the President for an extra term.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga said he couldn’t confirm whether the letter was received by the Police Authority and instead referred us to the Ministry of Internal Affairs where the Police Authority sits.

Kayihura’s methods of work were recently critiqued by a former Assistant Commissioner of Police Herbert Rheno Karugaba who accused him of turning the police into a bi-partisan organisation that focuses on Politics and not policing.

Karugaba’s letter also arrived amidst calls from opposition politicians to drag the Police Boss to the International Criminal Court over what they termed as ‘gross violations of human rights’.

Under his term, Kayihura has had trouble quelling street protests, providing housing for the police officers and taming increase in crime rates.