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Mystery deepens over blast victims
Police officers interact with locals at the bus park in Kampala on October 26. This was during a sensitisation exercise to teach them what to do if any one sees an abandoned objects. PHOTO/ISAAC KASAMANI
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Police said preliminary investigations show similarities in the shrapnel and fragments recovered on both the bus and at the pork joints in Komamboga.
One of two people killed in different explosions was yesterday buried at a public cemetery in Kampala and the body of the second remained at a morgue, with little information about either.
As friends assisted by Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) undertakers lowered the body of Emily Nyinaneza in a grave at Kirinya public burial ground, mourners speculated that she was a Rwandan.
The mystery deepened when none of her relatives could be traced nor showed up to either claim the corpse or attend the interment.
Neither the employer nor landlord could provide details about a young woman, believed to be aged 20 or thereabout, and whom colleagues fondly remembered as lively, likable and bar job hopper in Kawempe.
She met her death in last Saturday’s blast in the neighbourhood that police called “an act of domestic terrorism”.
Law enforcement appeared disengaged from seeking further information about the life, times and networks of Nyinaneza other than accounts by a volunteer that they did not know the waitress, but rushed her to hospital to save her life.
Relatedly, police were yesterday unable to provide detailed information about Isaac Matovu, whom spokesperson Fred Enanga said the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) had profiled and was monitoring as Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) member Muzafalu.
“If Enanga has told you that he (Matovu) is the person we have been looking for, then he must be having the profile. I don’t have it now, but I will ask CMI and see if they have the profile,” Defence and Military spokesperson Brig Flavia Byekwaso said in response to our inquiries for information about the alleged 23-year-old terrorist.
Matovu was alleged to be the passenger carrying an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that detonated on a moving Swift Bus on Monday in Mpigi along Kampala-Masaka highway, killing him and injuring the acting Greater Bushenyi Regional Police Commander Adrian Kwetereza, 56.
A copy of the front side of a national Identity Card provided to this newspaper by police showed that Matovu was a Ugandan national born on February 15, 1998.
Police allege that he was one of the suspects who fled from Pader Town when their accomplice in a reported plot to bomb mourners at the burial of the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Lt Gen Paul Lokech, was arrested.
There is no information about his movements or whereabout thereafter.
Before the Monday blast, investigators said he and a suspected collaborator, who disembarked midway before the explosion, boarded the Shift bus from Kisenyi Bus Terminal in Kampala and were headed to Greater Bushenyi. Kisenyi Bus Terminal has Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras and controlled access.
It remained unclear whether the police have retrieved a CCTV footage capturing Matovu and co-accused entering the bus park.
Matovu, according to police, lived in Kamuli A Zone in Kireka, outside Kampala, but the village chairman said the deceased was not known to him.
“I heard on the news that Matovu, who died in the bus bomb attack, is a resident of my area. I don’t know whether the police obtained documents from him. I don’t know him and I don’t have him in my records. But as you know, people keep resettling without informing the local leadership,” said Mr Robert Ntambi, the LC1 chairman.
His relatives were not readily available and questions remained about where he resided, what he did for a living, his social circle and study or family history.
Police said preliminary investigations show similarities in the shrapnel and fragments recovered on both the bus and at the pork joint in Komamboga, suggesting look-alike IEDs were blasted off apparently by accomplices.
Scene of Crime officers previously said the explosive detonated at Uncle Sam’s and Ronnie’s Pork eateries contained hub bearings, nails and metal pieces.
Police said Matovu was trained as an extremist under the leadership of ADF commander Meddie Nkalubo, alias Martin MD, alias Benjo, alias Benjamin Franklin, alias Meddie Lee, alias Punisher, who is believed to be have been hiding in the DRC for six years.
Bomb blast
Suspect
Matovu was alleged to be the passenger carrying an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) that detonated on a moving Swift Bus on Monday in Mpigi along Kampala-Masaka highway, killing him and injuring the acting Greater Bushenyi Regional Police Commander Adrian Kwetereza, 56.
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