For the past few years, the police units in Uganda have faced a growing housing challenge, leading to the near homelessness of a good number of police officers in the country.

According to state-sourced data, over 52,000 personnel live in deplorable conditions in police barracks across the country, while about 12,000 have to find shelter outside the barracks.

As a way to solve the festering problem, the government started the building of 1,020 police housing units at Naguru police headquarters back in 2016, but political and financial constraints caused the project to come to an abrupt halt.

Recently the government restarted the project, this time, investing $15.4 million. So far, 420 apartments are ready and have been commissioned for use by the Internal Affairs Minister, Maj Gen. Kahinda Otafiire.

While giving his speech, Otafiire pointed out that while the government should be commended for their good work, more needs to be done by other organizations to improve the living conditions of the police officers.

He shared that the Ugandan Police Force needs over 40,000 housing units to cater for personnel living in disgraceful conditions of its personnel.