In the recent past our country has witnessed murders and other gun related crimes at the hands of gun holders and their accomplices, the very weapons with which they are meant to secure the wanainchi (citizenry) and their property.
We are told that investigations into the causes of these gun crimes are on-going as always, but some of the perpetrators (or are they still suspects) of these heinous crimes come from the very institutions carrying out the investigation – the police and army. Nevertheless we patiently wait for the outcomes of the investigations.
As we wait for the outcomes of the investigations, the public as usual through social media came up with different schools of thought, many of which point to poor working and living conditions of the police and the army which could be forcing them to use guns on the very people they are supposed to protect or hire them out to criminals for something to survive on.
Before the debate on the gun crimes and poor working conditions of the men in uniform could be put to rest, an audio went viral on social media in which apparently some driver attached to the justice department was complaining about poor pay. He went ahead to make innuendos of murdering the people he chauffeurs through a road crash.
As the debate continued, I couldn’t help but imagine; what if teachers and medics had guns! For a long time the teachers and health workers of this great nation have lamented about poor pay and their general welfare to the extent of organizing sit down strikes to no avail – maybe we are lucky they don’t carry guns, or maybe we are not because for the teachers the future human resource of this country is in their hands!
It is high time the concerned people in this country found solutions to the poor pay and welfare challenges of all public servants, otherwise such crimes will increase.
Kambo Hakim- Teacher and Education consultant
kambohakim33@gmail.com
Jinja
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