Uganda: Kampala in bomb scare

Kampala (Daily Monitor) - Business on Bombo Road was yesterday morning paralysed  when people suspected an abandoned object to be a bomb. The object at Bhatia House, was wrapped in a polythene bag.

This comes after numerous  security alerts warning Ugandans of terror threats by Somalia-based Al Shabaab insurgents who have threatened to attack Kampala.

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba confirmed the incident adding that officers of the Anti Terror Unit had picked it.

“It wasn’t a bomb but a mere watch that was wrapped in a polythene bag,” she said.

This is the second time in a year, a similar scare has happened in Kampala.

Early this year, a suspected bomb was allegedly hurled at the boda boda cyclists near EMKA House, which houses the offices of special Presidential Advisor Maj. Kakooza Mutale. It was later confirmed that is was  a canister.

Uganda experienced multiple bomb blasts in the late 1990s allegedly planted by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group that was fighting government 15 years ago. Early this week, a bomb killed one person and injured two others in Mukono District.

In 2007, a bomb was hurled at  a car killing three people, including ex-ADF fighter, in Nateete, Kampala.

The attack prompted President Yoweri Museveni to order the Inspector General of Police Major General Kale Kayihura to recruit 1,000 Special Police Constables in the city centre to monitor road junctions.

 

Source: Daily Monitor, Oct 31, 2009