How does the Uganda Police arrest chicken thieves in your village? In one’s village one doubts highly that the Uganda Police ever arrests chicken thieves. For by the time in their characteristic snail pace response they arrive to places they are actually needed, the fellow residents of the chicken thief – one’s village mates – will have already meted out the punishment. By the time the Uganda Police arrive, if ever, the chicken thief will have been beaten senseless or even sometimes to death; or even tyre-burnt to ash.

So why is it the case that every time a ‘big’ person is arrested you hear things like: the police arrested him or her like a chicken thief?  For example: according to Mr Abdu Katuntu, “Mr Walubiri’s lawyer, his client was arrested at Uganda House, the seat of UPC party on Friday evening and bundled onto a police pick-up “like a chicken thief” before being driven to Kireka’s SIU… Arresting a very senior lawyer in the country in such a manner is sickening. (Source: Daily Monitor).

One does not condone police brutality or abuse of human rights nor does one condone citizens taking the law into their own hands and meting out punishments not proportional to the crime, but just wondering. Do ‘big’ people in Uganda expect other ‘lesser’ people to be arrested different? If the ‘big’ people think that the way the Uganda Police arrests them is humiliating and not befitting them, should this sentiment not be extended to all citizens of Uganda – as in every Ugandan should be arrested with dignity?