SECTIONS of Police officers in various units have taken
over kennels and turned them into fully-fledged homes,
highlighting an acute accommodation problem in the Force,
reports Steven Candia.
Given the
accommodation crisis, the bad news of a limping Police Dog
Section, in dire need of revamping could as well be good
news for the officers.
In other units, the kennels
which were built as temporary dog holding facilities and are
too small for human habitation have been turned into
complete offices and clinics. But when contacted, the
officer in charge of the section, Kenneth Ogalo, yesterday
said that though many stations in the country had kennels,
he was not sure to what use they had been put after they
fell vacant due to scarcity of dogs.
“I am told that
many of them have been put to some use but I don’t know
precisely what use they have been put to,” he said.
But The New Vision has established that part
of what used to be a ke nnel at the Jinja Road Police
Station barracks has been transformed into a clinic where
officers and their families seek medical care, while the
other part has been transformed into a house.
The
same is true for Old Kampala Police Station barracks where a
kennel has been turned into a house, and this is true of
other up country stations.
When The New
Vision visited the Old Kampala station on Saturday
curtains hang on the door of a kennel and family members
went about their business.
Officers said it was a
well-known fact at the barracks that some of their
colleagues were living in kennels but were pressed to do so
due to an accommodation crisis. Ends
Published on: Tuesday, 30th March, 2004 |