Matia Kakooza, the former Kimanya-Kabonera Division LC III Chairperson, who was listed among the targets, says the threats cannot be taken lightly, adding that they resolved to call for security meetings in the affected cells to find ways of neutralizing the threats.
Tension is high in Masaka city following anonymous
letters dropped by unidentified thugs threatening to attack residents and Masaka army barracks. The life-threatening leaflets were recovered from Kigamba cell,
Kimanya ward, in the Kimanya-Kabonera division. In the anonymous leaflets that are printed on A4-sized papers,
the thugs are threatening to attack several residential premises in the area
including the home of the LC I Chairperson, Jamir Mawanda.
They have also threatened to attack the UPDF Mechanized
Brigade at Kissagirwa, Equator University of Science and Technology, Masaka
Regional Referral Hospital, and four primary schools. The thugs accused the listed
targets of frustrating their mission of
getting money and unspecified apparatus. Cissy Sylvia Naava, one of those listed among the targets, says that the leaflets have triggered a lot of fear among residents in the area.
She indicates that some of them are even afraid of moving beyond
their compounds, given the earlier precedent in the region, when thugs would threaten
and indeed strike and harm some of their targets.
//Cue in:
“ssinyinza kugamba…..
Cue out; …..abantu
abalala.”//
Matia Kakooza, the former Kimanya-Kabonera Division LC III Chairperson, who was listed among the targets, says the threats cannot be taken lightly, adding that they resolved to call for security meetings in the affected cells
to find ways of neutralizing the threats.
According to Kakooza, their area is currently registering an influx of suspicious groups of people including youth who come under the pretext
of looking for employment. He suspects that such people whom he says include aliens
from the neighboring countries could be behind the threats.
Moses Nanoka, the Masaka City Police Commander confirms that
their intelligence teams have obtained copies of the leaflets and are analyzing
them. He explains that in the meantime, they have considered
heightening joint security operations in the area as well as making additional deployments
on the listed institutions as a response to the threats.
//Cue in: ‘we received
information…..
Cue out; ….this
crime.”//
Luganda
//Cue in: “ekituufu
twafunye….
Cue out; ….ku bantu
bano.”//
Notably, in 2019, similar threatening leaflets were thrown in
the areas around Masaka including at the home of the then Vice President Edward
Kiwanuka Ssekandi in Kizungu zone, Masaka city. The thugs then demanded money from their targets or else risk being killed.