Prime Minister assures country on security

The Prime Minister and Leader of Government Business, Robinah Nabbanja, has assured Ugandans that the recent acts of terrorism in the country are not insurmountable and will be decisively dealt with.

Nabbanja said this during the Thursday, 18 November 2021 plenary sitting in statement on the current security situation in the country.

Her statement comes in the wake of the Tuesday, 16 November 2021 twin suicide bomb attacks outside the Central Police Station in the capital and along Parliament Avenue.  

The Prime Minister called for concerted effort from the MPs and the general public saying the Government will never submit to terror, adding that the President, was scheduled to brief the country on the matter on Saturday, 20 November 2021.

“This threat is real, but we can and will indeed be dealt with. It calls for our collective will, resolve and means to decisively deal with it. We can never submit to terror. We call upon the public not to panic, but also not to be complacent at the same time. Be extra alert and vigilant; look out for the usual or unusual,” Nabbanja said.

Available information shows that at least 37 people were injured and seven died as a result of the two separate bomb explosions. The three attackers involved in the two incidents, Police said, also died during the explosions.

Nabbanja revealed that the Government will organise compassionate assistance to the bereaved families as well as the injured persons.

Hon Solomon Silwany, (NRM, Bukhooli County Central) proposed that government comes up with an inclusive compensation scheme to also cater for the people whose property was destroyed during the recent explosions across the country.

“I am requesting that the Prime Minister compensates even those whose property was destroyed including victims of Komamboga and the Swift Bus bomb blasts because all these people are our voters,” Silwany said.

Hon Fredrick Angura Fredrick, the Tororo South County MP said that these terror incidents should be used as a learning lesson for government institutions especially Parliament on how to deal with the evacuation procedures when such incidents arise.

He proposed that Parliament and other public and private institutions should have an AMBA domed brass bell to alert people during times of danger.   

Angura’s proposal attracted the attention of the Deputy Speaker, Anita Among, who tasked the Backbench Parliamentary Commissioners, to take it into consideration.

In her communication, the Deputy Speaker rallied Ugandans to be each other’s guardian angel and take their personal security as priority. She assured MPs that such cowardly acts of terror are meant to derail government business.

“Our security as people of Uganda and as a nation should be our priority. Death of one person affects Uganda as a country. Let us put politics aside and protect our citizens,” Among said, before advising the general public to avoid being in crowded places.