Who is behind Uganda’s new terror gangs?

Coming after the President made the claim and Kayihura vowed to act on it, some have interpreted the new wave of murders and threats, which have raised major security concerns, as an attempt by the heads of gangs some of whom work with police to fight back by causing mayhem.

This, however, is not the first time such attacks are happening and police is making such arrests. In 2012, police arrested several suspects in connection with mysterious murders in the same Greater Masaka region. At the time, the attackers would dig holes in walls of houses, enter the houses and hack their targets to death.

The affected districts were Mityana, Wakiso and Masaka specifically Kyanamukaka.

The killings even sparked rumours of a rebel group. Others said the region had been invaded by blood sucking attackers.

Just like police has named some suspects, in 2012, it said the main suspect was a one Fred Mujulizi, a contract killer, working in Greater Masaka. Mujulizi was arrested but he disappeared under mysterious circumstances. It wasn’t the first time he was escaping. He had been arrested three years ago and disappeared again. Apparently, Mujulizi had confessed to 17 murders in his area of operation.

The question bothering many is why police has not acted crime intelligence in the areas of Greater Masaka, Kampala Metropolitan area, which show clear pattern of these kinds of crimes since 2010.

Police records show that Greater Masaka region and Kampala Metropolitan, has always been amongst the top three regions with high crime of the current nature—murders, threats of violence and robberies.

However, similar killings have in the recent years, happened in Bundibugyo, Kasese, Mubende and even Kyegegwa where gunmen attacked a church and killed and brutally injured overnight worshippers.

While they had guns, they used a machete to behead one of the worshippers and placed her head on the altar. In that same attack, they killed Assistant Inspector of Police Grace Mwine and burnt the church. Reports indicate that petty street crime (vehicle robberies, vandalism), also increased in 2014 and continued to increase in 2015 despite a larger deployment of police in the metropolitan areas.

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