Internal Security Organisation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Internal Security Organisation (ISO) is Uganda's secret police or state security agency.

It was founded in 1987 and took over the duties first performed by Military Intelligence. Its headquarters are in Nakasero, Kampala, in the same building that used to house the dreaded State Research Bureau of the late dictator Idi Amin in the 1970s.

Its main function has been to protect the government of President Yoweri Museveni from military coups and to suppress internal political opposition.

The first director-general was Brigadier-General James Katugugu Muhwezi, who led it until 1986. One of the ISO's earliest missions was to arrange the murder of an important opposition figure, Andrew Kayiira, who was shot dead in the home of a friend in Kampala in 1987.

ISO infiltrated the Acholi community meetings in London, known as "Kacoke Madit" which the Museveni regime treated as anti-government and a threat to the regime.

In January 2006, the ISO was directed by President Museveni to deploy its nationwide network of operatives to campaign for him in the general election of February 23, 2006.