Gov’t reassures nation on security

The State Minister for Internal Affairs, Gen David Muhoozi, on Tuesday afternoon told Parliament that government had stepped up its measures to curb the growing insecurity in different parts of the country.
The minister was making a formal statement on the floor of Parliament about the terrific killings in Masaka in the past one month, executed by machete-wielding assailants whose motive is yet to be established. So far 28 people have been killed.
Gen Muhoozi said through meetings held in the past few days in top security heads, they resolved to dedicate specialised investigation teams from Kampala to handle case management properly and ensure those arrested are successfully prosecuted.
Also among the measures, Gen Muhoozi told the House that deployment of additional security personnel to dominate the affected areas had been effected in order to restore communal confidence as well as preventing further escalation.
As of Tuesday, no death was reported, which has not been the case in the past few weeks as residents in Lwengo, Kyotera, Bukomansimbi, Rakai and Masaka City in the greater Masaka area report one or two deaths every morning, which was almost becoming a normal thing.
Before he made his statement on the floor of the House, the minister who had earlier appeared before legislators on the Parliamentary committee of Defence and Internal Affairs, said they had reinforced the operations with canine (sniffer dogs) and other technical capabilities.
“The dogs, we have established were few but we have moved to have more dogs for now. But in the long run, we need to dedicate more dogs in the regions,” Gen Muhoozi said.
This, he explained will require additional funding to support the initiative and also facilitate government’s plan to recruit more security personnel to strengthen the forces.
The minister also informed Parliament that 69 suspects had been arrested, 38 of which will by close of Monday be arraigned in court.
MPs react
In response to the statement presented by Gen Muhoozi, the Leader Opposition (LoP) Mr Mathias Mpuuga alleged that the plan by government to recruit more Local Defence Unit (LDU) personnel was discriminative and that those recruited were not known by leaders in the Masaka region.
“The people being recruited as LDUs are alien in the [Masaka] region. I want to raise a red flag to whoever is recruiting, please involve the LCs in the area,” Mr Mpuuga said.
Mr Mpuuga also recommended that a select committee of Parliament be dispatched to Masaka to interact with affected persons with the hope that it could yield some results as this will allow affected people to open up the lawmakers.
Relatedly the Bugweri County legislator Mr Abdu Katuntu scoffed at plans to recruit additional LDUs reasoning that this would only ‘scare’ the panga wielding people but would not solve the insecurity problem. He, therefore, recommended that government heavily invests in the intelligence arm of security.
“Whether we recruit 1000 LDUs in the region, it is merely for scare reasons. Until we address the challenges within our intelligence, this will be not change,” Mr Katuntu said.
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