The implementation of section III of the nationwide CCTV undertaking by the Uganda Police Force (UPF) would require an extra US$62 million.
This revelation was made by the Undersecretary of the Police Aggrey Wunyi whereas showing earlier than the Committee on Defence and Internal Affairs on Tuesday, 11 March 2025.
Wunyi mentioned that the undertaking remains to be on the design and funds solicitation stage.
The State Minister for Internal Affairs, Hon. David Muhoozi led members of the pressure to the assembly of the committee. The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Abbas Byakagaba accompanied the minister.
The minister added that the already applied section I and II of the nationwide CCTV system is acting at a mean starting from 85 per cent to 95 per cent with some districts reaching 100 per cent efficiency.
Muhoozi added that the system has to date coated all of the 19 Kampala Metropolitan policing divisions and all municipalities together with Masaka, Mbarara, Ntungamo, Kabale, Kisoro, Arua, Gulu, Iganga and Jinja.
The different municipalities coated embody Rukungiri, Bushenyi, Kasese, Fort Portal, Mubende, Mityana, Hoima, Masindi, Kitgum, Lira, Soroti, Moroto, Mbale, Kapchorwa, Tororo and Kamuli.
“Since implementation of the system in 2018, 42,417 operational and intelligence led incidents have been managed and 6,688 circumstances have undergone thorough investigation utilizing the footage captured,” mentioned Muhoozi.
He mentioned section III of the undertaking seeks to shut the gaps recognized within the preliminary phases via growing digicam density to cut back blind spots, introduce body-worn cameras for law enforcement officials and improve the capability of the information centre to help rising storage and processing wants.
“The system has to maintain operating as a result of UPF recruited certified IT personnel and engineers to do upkeep of the system. Only steady coaching on new upgrades of the system is required,” Muhoozi added.
Legislators nevertheless, queried the effectiveness of the CCTV cameras.
Committee Chairperson, Hon. Wilson Kajwengye requested concerning the skill of the cameras to function effectively throughout energy outages affecting completely different components of the nation.
“We have had incidences the place the principle grid goes off. Does that have an effect on your cameras or do the cameras have capability to maintain operating regardless of such challenges? Is this additionally the case all through the nation?” Kajwengye requested.
Hon. Peter Okeyoh (NRM, Bukooli Island County) tasked the UPF management to offer the measures being taken to vandalism of CCTV methods within the area, together with throughout development works like highway upkeep.
Kagoma North County MP, Hon. Kintu Brandon requested concerning the feasibility of the nationwide CCTV system in incorporating footage captured non-public CCTV cameras.
“We have cameras put in in non-public locations like supermarkets, bars, inns or houses. How do you hyperlink them to your foremost CCTV centre in circumstances of crimes the place it’s essential to test their footage?” Kintu requested.
Muhoozi clarified that the nationwide system isn’t related to the non-public CCTV cameras.
“We solely use volunteer data from these with private cameras. We additionally shouldn’t have a authorized regime that governs non-public cameras and the way they will provide enter within the nationwide grid of cameras, as a result of there are privateness points concerned,” Muhoozi mentioned.
To deal with vandalism, Muhoozi famous that CCTV cameras are mounted on poles coated with spikes to discourage individuals from climbing to destroy the digicam methods.
The UPF Director for ICT, Felix Baryamwisaki mentioned the CCTV system has strong provisions to handle the inconsistencies of energy provide.
“The digicam websites have energy backup of as much as eight hours. If the principle grid goes off past that, we get affected however the principle monitoring centres stay operational as a result of they’ve longer backup hours,” mentioned Baryamwisaki.
He added that energy entry in cities has drastically improved with energy outages of no more than 4 hours including that there are plans to put in photo voltaic methods at CCTV websites in areas with lengthy energy outages.
