When Minister of Internal Affairs Kahinda Otafiire appeared before Parliament’s Defence and Internal Affairs Committee last week, his message to religious leaders seeking state-funded police escorts was blunt: those who profess divine protection should primarily rely on their faith, not strained government security budgets.
The minister’s remarks have opened a rare window into a growing fiscal dilemma facing Uganda’s security apparatus — the escalating cost of personalised police protection at a time when the Uganda Police Force is already grappling with significant budgetary pressures.
According to official police guidelines, escort services do not come cheap. A single police constable assigned to VIP escort duties costs tens of thousands of shillings per day, while officers above the rank of Inspector command even higher daily rates.
For a full security detail comprising multiple officers, lead vehicles, and support staff, the daily expenditure quickly multiplies. These figures represent only the direct personnel costs. Minister of State for Internal Affairs David Muhoozi told the parliamentary committee that the financial burden extends to vehicles, fuel, maintenance, and manpower — with many requesting escorts expecting brand-new lead cars from the police fleet.
Yet despite these published rates, the government has been absorbing these costs for individuals who, as Nyabushozi County MP Wilson Kagyengwe observed, face no publicly known security threats.
The law, under Article 212 of the Constitution and the Police Act, mandates the police to protect life and property but does not list religious leaders among office holders automatically entitled to state-funded escorts.
The timing of Otafiire’s intervention is significant. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is defending its budget framework for the coming financial year against a backdrop of tightened fiscal space. Documents presented to Parliament show the Ministry’s allocation has faced reductions that Otafiire has urgently appealed to Parliament to restore.
The police wage bill alone tells a sobering story. Aggrey Wunyi, the Under Secretary of the Uganda Police Force, recently informed the same committee that taxpayers will fund more than two trillion shillings in police salaries over the next four years. Projections show the wage requirement rising steadily, and these figures assume recruitment only replaces retirees.
Against this backdrop, every police officer assigned to escort duty for a pastor or influential individual represents a resource diverted from core policing functions. The opportunity cost is substantial.
Faced with unsustainable demands, government is signalling a strategic shift from individualised protection to technology-driven security systems. Muhoozi informed MPs that expanding national CCTV coverage offers a more sustainable and cost-effective approach to crime prevention.
The numbers support this argument. The police are currently seeking additional billions to roll out the next phase of CCTV installations in unserved urban centres and close surveillance gaps within the Kampala Metropolitan Area.
The Kampala Metropolitan area alone needs thousands more cameras to monitor highly populated areas and eliminate blind spots, according to Senior Commissioner of Police Yusuf Ssewanyana, the Director of Information Communication Technology.
The return on investment is already evident. Otafiire revealed that CCTV footage has been instrumental in resolving thousands of cases, leading to hundreds of convictions with more ongoing trials. Unlike personnel costs, which recur annually and grow with each new officer hired, surveillance infrastructure provides continuous service at diminishing marginal cost.
The current system creates a regressive subsidy. Taxpayers — many of whom cannot afford private security — fund protection for high-profile individuals whose security risks, in many cases, have not been validated by professional threat assessments. Official police guidelines acknowledge that escort services should depend on threat levels.
Police Spokesperson, Kituma Rusoke explained previously that while some threat levels can be handled under general security, specific imminent or life-threatening matters require verified information and authorisation from the Inspector General of Police. Yet the perception, as Otafiire described it, is an expanding culture of entitlement where individuals expect state protection as a perquisite of status rather than a response to verified danger.
The minister’s suggestion that religious leaders rely on faith rather than state escorts touches on a deeper economic question: if individuals require protection beyond what general policing provides, who should bear the cost? Under the Police Act, the force can charge for certain services. The published escort fees represent the official rate for those eligible to access paid police services. But the key distinction lies in who decides eligibility and who pays.
For constitutionally recognised offices — the Vice President, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, and Chief Justice — state-funded protection is explicit. For everyone else, the economic case for cost-recovery or private provision grows stronger as fiscal pressures mount.
The government has already prioritised peace and security, with the Ministry of Finance releasing substantial funds to the police. But these allocations are for general security, not individual VIP escorts. MP Kagyengwe captured the emerging consensus when he argued that escort services carry significant hidden costs that could instead be channelled into strengthening crime detection systems.
Improved CCTV integration and intelligent crime reduction strategies, he maintained, would diminish the need for personalised protection. Otafiire himself emphasised that security deployments must be determined by professional threat assessments, not titles alone.
Some parliamentary committee leaders, he noted, could face greater threats than cabinet ministers depending on the sensitivity of their work.
The question now is whether the fiscal logic will prevail over the culture of entitlement. Every police officer assigned to escort duty is one not available for community policing, criminal investigation, or traffic management.
In an era of constrained budgets and growing demands, that trade-off is becoming impossible to ignore.