Ugandans urged to screen housemaids for crime before employment

Dr. Fred Yiga, the Police Director Interpol and Peace Support Operations has asked Ugandans to get their house maids screened for crimes before employing them.

Dr. Yiga says that that one of the mandates of Interpol, apart from ensuring international and regional cooperation in the fight against trans-national crime, is to reduce domestic crimes in the country.

Dr Yiga was on Sunday speaking on the sidelines of the regional police meeting at Munyonyo Commonwealth Resort.

He urges Ugandans who intend to secure the services of house maids, or home workers, to approach his directorate to do a thorough criminal screening about them.

This is aimed at ensuring the households are kept in the know what criminal records the maids they plan to employ have. Dr. Yiga says it reduces risks of trusting one's home and children with maids whose backgrounds they hardly know. The services according to Dr. Yiga are available at a fee of between 50,000 and 60,000 Shillings.

Dr. Yiga says Uganda Police has a criminal database which entails fingerprints of every person that has ever been held as a suspect or criminally charged by police across the country.

He said that once a person brings the intended employees for vetting, police crosschecks with their database and advises the employer accordingly. Dr. Yiga notes that this builds confidence among house maids, or domestic workers in general, to work with one heart once they know police has their details.

Dr. Yiga appealed to Ugandan youth who are yearning for employment abroad to always go through Uganda Police to be able to guide them on genuine companies that handle the businesses. He notes that once Interpol Uganda is used, it becomes easy to also link with other countries through the same organisation.

In 2014, Jolly Tumuhiirwe,   a house maid was sentenced to four years in jail after she was captured on video surveillance camera footage torturing a toddler who was one-and-half-years at the time.

Last month, Tumuhiirwe was released about two years and eight months into her four-year sentence. The Uganda Prisons officials said her sentence attracted remission, a reduced verdict considered for disciplined and hardworking inmates.

-URN