The Uganda Police will be spending close to 2 Billion Shillings to conduct DNA tests every year.
This is according to the cost per sample as explained by the acting head of force’s Directorate of Forensic Sciences-DFS Andrew Mubiru.
In his document to the commissioning of the DFS, Mubiru explains that a capital offence that involves examining DNA samples of both the suspects and victims would cost police at least 4.5 million shillings.
Mubiru indicates that the newly commissioned DFS is cable of putting out 100 DNA cases per quarter at a tune of 450 million shillings. This translates into a 4.5million shilling per case. Police’s Criminal Investigations Directorate –CID has been registering at least 380 cases that require DNA testing.
When you multiply the 380 DNA cases per year with 4.5 million shillings per case, police would be spending a minimum of 1.7 billion shillings annually on DNA analysis. Unlike the paternity DNA tests that often give conclusive results on a single examination, police say forensic tests in most cases have to be conducted twice or more to get undoubted results to enable successful prosecution of culprits.
Mubiru adds that even with the establishment of DFS at Naguru police headquarters, the cost for DNA analysts won’t necessarily reduce. This is because of a series of steps involved such as the use of presumptive tests to understand whether one is dealing with human blood or something else.
