The first policewoman to go on patrol in Uganda was Pauline Maniraguha Bangirana. She was a Rwandese born in 1942, serving and educated in Uganda and she completed comprehensive training at the Police Training School in Nsambya.

Maniraguha was convinced to join police force in September 1960 by her sister Patricia and brother in-law Mr. Ayigihugu after they saw an advert in English Newspaper known as Uganda Argus. The advert asked women aged 18 to 21 years who were single or divorced to join police. She was not enthusiastic about police since she wanted to be a Community Development Assistant. Mr. Ayigihugu insisted on taking her to the recruitment officer and the rest was history. By the time of her retirement, she had risen to the rank of Superintendent of Police and holds a Police Centenary Medal.

Maniraguha’s resilience and advocacy for equal treatment is one of the reasons why treatment of female police personnel has tremendously evolved over the years. Unlike today where policewomen hold high command positions, Maniraguha says that back then, the women police section was simply not an integral part of the force. Women would be recruited purposely to handle children and women who conflicted with the law.
Maniraguha was in the pioneer cohort of 10 females to join Uganda Police Force in 1960. She says in her autobiography that although policewomen were permitted to marry, it was an abomination for the logical outcome of marriage, getting pregnant to happen. In her autobiography, Maniraguha narrates that pregnancy was always enough to show policewomen the exit from the force. In 1965, Maniraguha applied for marriage and her request was granted and she tied the knot at Christ the King Church.

But the joy was short-lived when she reported her pregnancy six months later, and she was told to resign. The basis of the order? Chapter 3 of the Police Standing Order, which stated that if a pregnant female police officer refused to leave the force on her accord, the police would dismiss her.

“I wrote to Mr. Oryema begging him to consider my case compassionately” Maniraguha recounts. “I pointed out the fact that he allowed me to get married and the result of my marriage was pregnancy. I also showed him Chapter 30 of the PSO which stated that if a woman police was pregnant and wished to resign, she would be discharged at her own request.” Oryema granted her request extending to her annual leave of 36 days plus 90 days of unpaid leave.

Now aged 80 years, Maniraguha advices young female officers on how best they can handle advances from their colleagues, using tips she learnt from a colleague she met at a police station in United Kingdom in 1964. Maniraguha Bangirana details her experience as Uganda’s first policewoman in her book, “To Be Shred without Appearing a Shrew,”