Prime
Parliament presses govt for answers on bombings
Mr Elijah Okupa, the Kasilo County MP
What you need to know:
- Mr Elijah Okupa, the Kasilo County MP, who raised the matter, tasked government “to give a statement to the country regarding those events because we don’t know whether they are going to reoccur.”
A section of Members of Parliament (MPs) yesterday tasked government to address the security concerns in the country following two separate bombing incidents.
Mr Elijah Okupa, the Kasilo County MP, who raised the matter, tasked government “to give a statement to the country regarding those events because we don’t know whether they are going to reoccur.”
He added: “We know and only read from the papers that the government will give a statement on Thursday. But the terrorists say we have the clock while they have the time. The time between today (yesterday) and Thursday, anything can happen. So Ugandans need to be given information, guidance such that we secure this country.”
President Museveni is set to address the nation tomorrow, and is expected to talk about the security situation in the country and the Covid-19 pandemic, including the dusk-to-dawn curfew that largely remains on paper.
Mr Okupa wondered why entertainment places are allowed to operate, with some guarded by either police or other security personnel.
“There is a place in Ntinda, near my place. You find that in the evening, it is guarded by a military pickup and people are partying,” he said.
Issue
Mr Okupa added: “Then, in Rubaga, it is a similar situation. There is a place where you always find a pickup truck of police and the army outside while people are busy partying inside. There is need to come out [and address] the matter from the Minister of Internal Affairs and Security.”
While responding to a motion for resolution of Parliament urging government to sign and ratify the treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons, Ms Sarah Achieng Opendi, the Tororo District Woman MP, tried to draw a parallel with the bombing incidents in Uganda.
“I just want to appeal to you that we are currently struggling with bombs everywhere. Tomorrow, you may never know that those nuclear weapons may find their way here,” Ms Opendi said.
The motion was referred by the Speaker Jacob Oulanyah to the committee on Foreign Affairs.
Mr Oulanyah said ordinarily, a procedural matter related to security would require no prompting as government needed to give confidence to people.
The junior Internal Affairs minister, Gen David Muhoozi, had offered to make a statement either yesterday or today, with the Speaker settling for the latter.
On Saturday, a bomb at a bar in Komamboga, Kawempe Division, in Kampala claimed one life and left scores injured while on Monday, another explosion at Lungala in Mpigi District — this time on a Swift Safaris bus — left one person dead and several others injured.
