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The book discusses police practices in Uganda, which are understood as fluid and reflective of the socio-political, cognitive and discursive contexts within which the Uganda Police Force (UPF) exist. The author was immersed in the UPF both as an ethnographer and a consultant. The book demonstrates how police officers navigate clashes between personal interests and those of the UPF shedding more light on the divergences and convergences between policies in theory and policies in practice. It contributes to the literature on police research, especially to our understanding of policing and the anthropology of the state in Africa. It highlights that the Ugandan police engages in political policing and its role is stretched beyond its legal mandate. The target audience is twofold: first, academics interested in police studies and the undercurrents of interface bureaucracies in Africa. Second, practitioners focused on improving state and police services in African contexts.
List of contents
Introduction.- Chapter 1: The History of the Uganda Police Force.- Chapter 2: Administration, Command and Operational Structures.- Chapter 3: Political Policing.- Chapter 4: Criminal Investigations Department: Official vs Practical Norms.- Chapter 5: The Traffic Police: "Devils in White".- Chapter 6: The Life of a Territorial Police Commander: A Focus on DPCs and RPCs.- Chapter 7: The Police in Rural Areas.- Chapter 8: The Power Game: Organizational Politics and Intrigue.- Conclusion.
About the author
Dr. Kagoro holds a PhD in Sociology and since 2013 has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Intercultural and International Studies (InIIS), Bremen University, Germany. He has subsequently worked in three research projects; "Knowledge Production in German Peace and Security Policy", "Figurations of Internationalized Rule in Africa" and "Policing in Africa". He has done consultancies with police forces in both Uganda and Rwanda. In 2021, he authored a report on human rights in Uganda commissioned by the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ). He has published widely on themes of militarization, civil-military relations and policing.
