KAMPALA – A cabinet chaired by President Yoweri Museveni on Monday at State House Entebbe approved plans to borrow about Shs395Billion ($104 million) from Standard Chartered Bank Uganda Ltd. for a national closed-circuit television network amid a rise in urban crime.

The money will be spent on designing and building a command and control centre and regional units, and developing data-recovery facilities, Information Minister Frank Tumwebaze said in a press briefing at Uganda Media Centre in Kampala on Tuesday.

President Museveni vowed a crime crackdown on Sunday and ordered the mobilization of 24,000 armed personnel to monitor Wakiso district that encircles the city centre after a former Buyende district commander Muhammed Kirumira was murdered in cold blood on Saturday evening.

Unknown assailants have in the previous months killed a number prominent figures including Muslim clerics, deputy public prosecutor Joan Kagezi, and top police officer Andrew Felix Kaweesi in March last year.

They also murdered major Muhammed Kigundu and Arua Municipality Member of Parliament Col Ibrahim Abiriga in June this year.

Mr Museveni in a national address on Sunday ordered for the installation of CCTV cameras on major highways, in the city centre and across the country.

Tumwebaze said the software that will also be developed will see the technology recognizing people’s faces and voices and he is optimistic that this will end violence and city crime.

Government recently confirmed that it has started installing CCTV cameras in different parts of Kampala.

Chinese company Huawei was given the tender for installation of these cameras and over 5,000 are expected to be installed by the end of next year.

Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima said 900 cameras are already in the country and the preparations are underway