Black Mamba does not exist - Kayihura
There is no unit in the security forces called Black Mamba, the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, said yesterday.
By Vision Reporter
There is no unit in the security forces called Black Mamba, the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, said yesterday.
“This is a creation of the media. What we have is the Rapid Response Unit of the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force. It is a unit of officers from different security agencies, equipped with skills to deploy and neutralise any terrorist threat in Uganda.â€
Kayihura for the first time explained what prompted him to deploy the unit at the High Court during a bail hearing of PRA suspects on November 16, 2006.
More than one year after the event, which was heavily criticised by lawyers and judges, he defended the decision as “prudent and correctâ€.
“I was privy to intelligence reports of a planned daring bid to rescue key suspects of a treason case from the premises of the High Court,†Kayihura said.
“When we get that kind of information, we chose to err on the side of caution. The decision to deploy the Rapid Response Unit was prudent and correct in the context of the perceived threat.â€
Kayihura refuted allegations that the deployment was an attack on the independence of the judiciary.
“How would the deployment of security personnel to prevent the likely occurrence of a violent crime be labeled an attack on the independence of the judiciary?
What the judiciary wants is absolute independence. This is not practical in a democracy because each branch of the government has to put checks and balances on the other.â€
The inspector-general of police was reacting to an address by Justice Ogoola during the Annual Judges Review Conference at Nile Resort Hotel in Jinja. The High Court judge repeated his condemnation of the deployment. “The most dramatic and naked incidence of the attack on the independence of the judiciary remains the Black Mamba’s siege of the temple of justice,†Ogoola said.
There is no unit in the security forces called Black Mamba, the Inspector General of Police, Maj. Gen. Kale Kayihura, said yesterday.
“This is a creation of the media. What we have is the Rapid Response Unit of the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force. It is a unit of officers from different security agencies, equipped with skills to deploy and neutralise any terrorist threat in Uganda.â€
Kayihura for the first time explained what prompted him to deploy the unit at the High Court during a bail hearing of PRA suspects on November 16, 2006.
More than one year after the event, which was heavily criticised by lawyers and judges, he defended the decision as “prudent and correctâ€.
“I was privy to intelligence reports of a planned daring bid to rescue key suspects of a treason case from the premises of the High Court,†Kayihura said.
“When we get that kind of information, we chose to err on the side of caution. The decision to deploy the Rapid Response Unit was prudent and correct in the context of the perceived threat.â€
Kayihura refuted allegations that the deployment was an attack on the independence of the judiciary.
“How would the deployment of security personnel to prevent the likely occurrence of a violent crime be labeled an attack on the independence of the judiciary?
What the judiciary wants is absolute independence. This is not practical in a democracy because each branch of the government has to put checks and balances on the other.â€
The inspector-general of police was reacting to an address by Justice Ogoola during the Annual Judges Review Conference at Nile Resort Hotel in Jinja. The High Court judge repeated his condemnation of the deployment. “The most dramatic and naked incidence of the attack on the independence of the judiciary remains the Black Mamba’s siege of the temple of justice,†Ogoola said.