Capacity building and counter-terrorism in the Uganda police force (UPF): a case study of Kampala Metropolitan police.

Abstract

The study was about Capacity building and counter-terrorism in the Uganda police Force: The objectives of the study were to: find out the current framework for capacity building, to examine the likely impact of capacity building on successful CT strategy and find out the challenges of capacity building in counter-terrorism and suggest elucidations in Kampala Metropolitan Police. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design that involved both the use of qualitative and quantitative research which included interviews and self-administered questionnaires. The study found out that the current framework for Capacity-building framework in Kampala Metropolitan targets different actors and institutions, and thematic areas like rule of law and good governance, land and sea border management, armed forces, law enforcement, building resilience, terrorism funding, and strategic communication. It includes elements such as regional dialogue and technical cooperation. The impact of capacity building on the successful counter terrorism strategy indicated that Terrorism has had a devastating effect on people including the enjoyment of the right to life, liberty and physical integrity of victims. However, there are uncertainties regarding the impact of capacity building on issues like non-discrimination, human rights, and the rule of law and challenges related to capacity building in counter-terrorism efforts in the UPF are numerous, as identified by the respondents. These challenges include the lack of policies covering Mutual Legal Assistance, weak criminal justice capacity, conflicts caused by non-legal methods between countries, weak interstate integration of policing cooperation, absence of trusted collaboration between military forces, failure of institutions to cooperate as expected, lack of an integrated approach to justice, security, governance, and development, lack of an acceptable definition of terrorism, and disagreement regarding supporting certain groups considered terrorist by other countries The study recommends that Kampala Metropolitan Police (KMP) should focus on capacity building framework to target the different actors and institutions and the thematic areas like rule of law and good governance, land and sea border management, armed forces, law enforcement, building resilience, terrorism funding, and strategic communication, KMP should promote regional dialogue and technical cooperation and KMP should building resilience that is aimed at enhancing the UPF’s security and combating counterterrorism.