By Mukwaba Katende
Police registered an additional 126 cases of land related crime in the last year compared to 2023, the 2024 annual crime report has revealed.
According to the report, a total of 397 cases of land related crime were reported to police in 2024 compared to 271 cases reported in 2023, giving a 46.5% increase in the crimes reported.
The 46.5 percent increase in land crime comes despite various measures put in place by the government to combat land crime in the country.
The report shows that homicide cases also increased from 4,248 cases to 4,329 in 2024. At least 4,411 people lost their lives in homicide cases country wide.(3703 were males and 708 females).
The report indicates that corruption crimes is also on the increase with 13,132 cases reported compared to 12,924 incidents in 2023 giving a 1.6 percent increase.
Despite the increase in homicide, corruption cases and land related crimes last year, the general crime in the country dropped by 4.1 percent.
The crime is calculated by dividing the volume of crime by the total population of the area and then multiplying the results by 100,000. This indicates that for every 100,000 people in Uganda, 476 are victims of crime.
According to report out of the 218,715 cases registered, 81,750 were taken to court, convictions were 26,328, on going cases in court are 43,579 and cases which didn’t proceed are 46,302. The report indicates that 90,000 criminal cases are still under inquiry
While releasing the 2024 Annual Crime Report at Police headquarters in Naguru, Inspector General of Police Abbas Byakagaba said that the level of crime will greatly reduce in the coming years since they have started implementing the sub county policing model.
The Inspector General of Police Abbas Byakagaba, noted that the number of crimes reduced from 228,074 cases in 2023 to 218,715 in 20224. This means that the crime rate has dropped from 500 in 2023 to 476 in 2024.
Byakagaba revealed that there going to put 18 police officers at each sub county to decentralize police services closer to the people thus enhancing crime prevention in the communities and enabling quick response to crimes.
Assistant Inspector General of Police Tom Magambo, the director of the Criminal Investigations Directorate said some cases were discontinued because they were resolved by the complainants and victims or involved civil matters reported to police before investigations commence.
Offences of theft, common assault, domestic violence, obtainng money by false pretence and threatening violence were the highest contributors to criminal cases.
Murder by assault and mob action were the highest contributors to deaths with 1,339 and 1016 cases respectively. 491 cases of murder by strangulation were registered last year.
Ankole and Bunyoro regions had the highest murder cases in the country followed by Lango and Rwenzori regions Districts led with the highest murder cases in the country are Ntungamo 91 cases, Luwero 86 and Mukono 80.
According to the report more than quarter of the total volume of cases were theft with 61,000 cases. Police said the key motive in theft cases was economic gains. Ankole and Kampala Metropolitan Police North regions had the highest theft cases in the country.
On the side of traffic, road traffic crashes increased, 5,144 people died in road accidents in 2024. Out of 5,144 deaths, 228 were drivers, 1,720 motorcyclists, 676 were passengers on motor cycles, 1,666 were pedestrians, 438 passengers in other vehicles.
The report shows 25808 casualties from road crashes in 2024 compared to 24728 in 2023 giving 4.4 percent increase.
In 2023, motorcyclists were in the second position after pedestrians as victims of fatal road accidents. A total of 1720 motorcyclists were killed last year compared to 1520 in 2023.
Pedestrians are the second highest road users to die on the road with 1666 deaths last year. More clashes were reported to have occurred during day time than the night time.
a similar trend is also reflected in fatal crashes where more fatal crashes are reported to have occurred during day time.
