Full Speech of Major Gen. Kyanda On Excessive Use of Force Against Civilians By Fisheries Protection Unit
It has been a norm for Fisheries Protection Unit to use excessive force against civilians since its inception in 2016 in their pursuit to enforcing fishing laws on major water bodies in Uganda.
Since the Unit was put in place in 2016, the fishermen and women from different water bodies have been complaining about the high handedness of the FPU personnel that had caused untold suffering to the civilian population in Rubirizi District and its neighbouring Districts.
Basing on that, the Chief of Staff Land Forces, Major Gen. Leopold Kyanda on Monday 14th December 2020, decided to pay a visit to Rubirizi district to listen to locals complaints.
Below is his full speech
On behalf of the UPDF leadership, I welcome you to this important meeting. You may recall that following the Directives of HE the President, on 31 Jan 2020, we met you the leaders of this area and local population in Mbuga and Kyamuhiga cells in Katerera and Katunguru Counties, Rubirizi District.
The purpose of the visit was to listen to the population and get facts regarding the excesses reportedly committed by UPDF personnel working in the Fisheries Protection Unit (FPU).
2. The visit was preceded by several complaints concerning the high handedness of the FPU personnel that had caused untold suffering to the civilian population in Rubirizi District and its neighbouring Districts.
3. Cabinet which sat at State House Entebbe on 27 Jan 20, also constituted a Sub-Committee chaired by Hon. Minister of State for Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries/Animal Industry (MAAIF), to study, verify allegations against the FPU and overall activities in the Fisheries regulatory process and prepare an evidence-based report to Cabinet.
4. Consequently, the strategic leadership assigned various senior officers to support the cabinet subcommittee in executing its mandate and the relevant reports were forwarded to the tasking authority.
5. During the investigations, it was proven that the establishment of the Fisheries Protection Unit yielded enormous benefits to the fishing communities in particular and the country at large. These benefits include:
a. Revamping of Fish factories that were closing down due to low fish stocks in the Ugandan water bodies. Other new factories have since opened. This achievement offered more employment opportunities to Ugandans.
b. Two years after its establishment in 2016, the FPU operations led to increased fish biomass in the country of up to 68 percent.
c. There has been increased government revenue as a direct result of FPU operations.
d. In 2017, Government collected 400 million shillings of revenue from fish through licensing alone.
e. In 2018, revenue collection through licensing rose 800 million while in 2019 it reached to 2.7 Billion shillings.
f. There was also observed remarkable reduction of deaths and other crimes in the waters as a result of the FPU deployment on the waters.
g. The visibility of FPU personnel and the UPDF Marines in the waters helped to control overloading of boats/ Canoes that used to result in various marine fatal accidents.
h. Control of cross border aggression by armed bandits.
j. The size and quality of fish in the open market has greatly improved.
6. Based on the above background and in order to consolidate the above achievements, the strategic leadership has taken the following actions:
a. A team led by COS LF, has been instituted by the CDF to examine and streamline operations of the task force in major water bodies in the country.
b. Restructuring command of the Task Force at all levels.
c. Holding accountable individual Task Force Personnel who were found to have committed some mistakes in the course of their operations.
d. Establishment of structures to ensure effective Civil Military Cooperation and reporting lines.
7. We thank the leadership at all levels for the continued support to the UPDF generally in executing our mandate for not only combat operations, but also Operations Other than War, such as Fisheries enforcement, which aimed at restoring the fish stocks in our water bodies and further contributing to Uganda’s revenue collection and providing a peaceful fishing environment among others.
I thank you very much for listening to me.