KAMPALA- The Minister of Internal Affairs, Kahinda Otafiire has appealed to Parliament to ensure that the 475.712billion shilling budget cut imposed on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the agencies therein is reversed in order to ensure that Uganda holds free and fair elections in 2026.
He made the appeal while appearing before Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs Committee today, where he led the team from Uganda Police and Uganda Prisons Services to present their 2025/26 Budget Framework Paper.
Kahinda otafire also added that he is engaging the Ministry of Finance and colleagues in Cabinet in order to see how we shall address this imbalance in order to get once and for all support for conducting elections.
Documents tabled before the Committee indicate that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been allocated 1.490tillion for 2025/26 which is less when compared with 1.966trillion of the revised budget of 2024/25 by 475.712billion.
Minister Otafiire also called for the provision for the maintenance of the national CCTV and implementation of the third phase of the project in order to cover the gaps in metropolitan Kampala.
He added that there is need for periodic maintenance to improve the quality of CCTV footage, longevity and reduce down time of the installed cameras.
Minister Otafire said that there is need to implement phase III of the CCTV project to fill the existing gaps within the Kampala metropolitan area and other areas across the country.
The Minister defended his request citing the achievements registered in the two CCTV projects noting that the National CCTV continues to play a vital role in curbing crime.
Minister Otafire also revealed to the members of the committee that out of the 1,700 cases handled by CCTV analysts, there have been convictions in 316 cases and 96 are undergoing trial with the aid of CCTV analysis reports.
