SEMA Announces “Office of the Year”

Kira Road police station was awarded best service police station of the year 2018 based on citizen feedback gathered by SEMA. A certificate of recognition was presented to the Division police commander of the station by Nathalie Dijkman (CEO, SEMA) on the 8^th of April 2019

To be awarded police station of the year, Kira Road police station outperformed four other police stations including Ntinda police station, Central police station, Wandegeya police station and Jinja Road police station. SEMA, through its network of volunteers (data collectors), and later a hardware feedback device, started collecting feedback from citizens visiting all the above police stations. Citizens were asked to share their satisfaction ratings on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 representing the very worst experience and 5 representing the very best. Through the interviews, citizens could also share their experiences relating to corruption incidences, waiting times, discrimination and whether they were served or not among others.  The data from all police stations was collected throughout the year, analyzed, and monthly performance reports for each station presented to each office – allowing them to make monthly changes according to what citizens were saying.

At the end of the year, Kira Road Police Station emerged the best performing station with an annual average rating of 61.6%, and recorded the lowest levels of corruption plus the highest improved customer care.

As a reward for being the best performing police station of 2018, Kira Road police station was repainted by SEMA in partnership with POLLICY, to give it a fresh new look and to receive a memorial mural painting under their campaign Create your Kampala. The artists aimed to promote accountability as depicted in the painting where citizens work hand in hand with police officers to create a better living environment.

With such rewards to best performing public institutions, SEMA hopes to create positive competition and motivation among public institutions in a bid to improve service delivery for the citizens. After seeing the painting, officers from other police stations working with SEMA have already expressed that they want to receive the award next year, in a hope to also receive a repainting or improvement of their office. Citizens also appreciate the new look of the police station, with one having commented to SEMA that “Every police station must work with citizens to maintain law and order, in fact strengthen community policing, so that citizens are directly involved and part of the impact the police has on society”.