Uganda — Police, etc., 1971-1979

Introduction.

This page is an overspill from the original page, and describes the uniforms of non-military units like the police.

The State Research Bureau.

A slightly excitable NBC news report (undated) says that Amin’s “S-Men” can be identified by their distinctive dark glasses, worn around the clock, and their car number plates, which supposedly all begin with “UVS”. Henry Kyemba also notes the “UVS” plates and the gaudy clothing of these men. Ivan Smith remarks as follows (pp. 116-117): “The money was good in the State Research Centre. Its members had the best cars, all identifiable to the civilian population. They tended to drive around in big, black Toyotas, imported from Japan in a year when the registration number was UVS. In many of the reports of assassination or of people disappearing UVS car numbers were quoted.”

The Police.

There seem to have been a few different types of police, and sorting them out is difficult. The source material makes it very difficult to distinguish black from dark blue — I call it all “black” here, with that caveat.

“Normal police.” Service dress uniform a distinctive light greenish grey colour, the tunic sometimes with short sleeves. Black caps, lanyards, socks and leather, silver buttons. Black or black with two white stripe stable belts can be seen, rarely. Black NCO chevrons on an olive-drab base. Officers seem to have worn their lanyards on the left, at least sometimes. Lieutenant-colonels (or equivalent) seem to have had one row of silver foliage on the cap, full colonels (or equivalent) had two rows. Officer shoulder insignia had black backing or was on black slides. Black collar patches with silver embroidery for the appropriate ranks — long ones for the tunic, short ones for the shirt. The cap badge the Ugandan crane above a scroll, inside a wreath. Full dress uniform a black four-pocket tunic with silver buttons etc. Black leather. Broad red trouser stripes. On at least one officer, in the black uniform, the lanyard seems to be twisted black and white.

Prison service. The text description of one video describes a shot in it as showing “police and prison officers” — the police officers are accounted for, so by elimination the other men seen are the prison officers. Uniforms as for police officers, but with brown belts and red double lanyards. A colonel seen in Idi Amin Dada Autoportrait wears red collar patches and a red rank slide as well as the red lanyard.

Another police unit. Solid black or solid red caps, with black chinstraps and peaks. Black or red neckties. Dark grey uniform with brown leather. Enlisted men with silver circular belt buckles. Red trouser stripes. I think this is the more formal order of dress for the prisons service. The black/red distinction may indicate something.

Motor police(?) White tunic, etc. These men can be seen doing escort duty on motorbikes with white helmets, etc. etc.

The police band. This one is identified in a video caption as the police band. Red open-collar tunic, dark blue or black pointed cuffs trimmed yellow, cap, and trousers (the last with red stripe). Dark blue or black drums. Dark blue or black NCO chevrons. Presumably, if this is the police band, black in each case.

Perhaps also the police band. Another band. The video description, if I read it correctly, seems to identify these men as the police band, in which case they got a bit of a uniform upgrade following the above entry. Red tunic with yellow “brandenburgs” and pointed cuff trim with trefoils. Red cap band and dark blue or black top. Gold badge and chinstrap(?). Dark blue or black trousers with red stripe. Dark blue or black drum. If this is indeed the police band the dark elements are presumably black.

Another band. Navy blue uniforms, black belts, red trim, cuff trefoils etc, black caps.