With two days remaining to Uganda’s presidential and parliamentary elections, the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) First Division based in Kakiri, Wakiso District, has warned voters in the Kampala Metropolitan Policing Area (KMP) to leave polling stations immediately after casting their ballots.
The UPDF First Division, which supports the Uganda Police Force (UPF) during security operations, said it has finalized a joint deployment plan under police guidance. According to the First Division spokesperson, Major Charles Kabona, security deployments are already visible and will be intensified before, during, and after polling day.
Major Kabona said the deployments are intended to support police efforts to ensure peaceful voting and uninterrupted business operations. He emphasized that voters must not linger at polling stations after voting in order to avoid unnecessary confrontations between civilians and security personnel.
Ugandans with cast presidential and parliamentary ballots on January 15 but Major Kabona said: “The Electoral Commission guidelines are clear, after voting, people should return home and the UPDF is fully prepared to enforce this directive,” Major Kabona said.
Although the UPDF has not disclosed the exact number of personnel deployed in KMP, security sources indicated that Kampala City and the neighboring districts of Wakiso and Mukono have been reinforced with not less than 20,000 security personnel. These reportedly include about 5,000 UPDF soldiers, 2,000 military police officers, 7,000 police recruits, and approximately 9,000 police officers drawn from the Field Force Unit (FFU), Counter-Terrorism (CT), and General Duty departments. However, these figures could not be independently verified as both police and UPDF had not responded to inquiries by press time.
Sources said Kampala and Wakiso were prioritized due to their large voter populations and a history of mass protests during previous election campaigns or after declaring winner. The Joint Operations Committee (JOC), on which the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) sit, has reportedly directed all military and police units in KMP to remain on standby class one.
Standby class one denotes the highest level of alert, requiring intensified patrols, enhanced intelligence gathering, and the suspension of non-essential activities. All leave for security personnel has also been suspended until the completion of the election period.
The JOC command structure for KMP includes Kampala Metropolitan Police Commander CP Richard Echega, UPDF First Division Commander Maj Gen Fred Mwesigye, Police Director for Crime Intelligence Maj Gen Chris Damulira, and Military Police Commander Brig Gen William Beinomugisha.
Police spokesperson ACP Kituuma Rusoke had not responded to inquiries regarding the decision to deploy 7,000 out of the 10,000 newly recruited police officers to KMP, despite previous incidents of electoral violence reported in other regions of the country.
KMP experienced the highest levels of violence during the 2021 presidential campaign, with more than 50 people reportedly killed. On polling day, however, security forces heavily surrounded the residence of opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, popularly known as Bobi Wine, who was then and remains the main challenger to President Yoweri Museveni.
While Kampala largely remained calm after Museveni was declared winner of the 2021 election, protests erupted in Masaka City, leaving at least 10 people dead and several others injured. As the country heads to another election, there are growing concerns that security forces may again place Bobi Wine under house arrest either before or after he casts his vote.