As the panga-wielding gangs mostly operated in Mukono Municipality, the rampaging robbers were also reported to have targeted domestic animals including goats and pigs which they used to slaughter at the owners’ homes, left behind internal organs of the animals and took the carcasses.
Mukono Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Hajat Fatuma Ndisaba Nabitaka has asked the locals in Mukono district to tighten their personal security if the fight against the increased insecurity will be able to yield a long-lasting solution.
Ndisaba said the vigilance amongst the community members which is currently exhibited in different villages, the team work with the security officers and local leaders should just improve.
The RDC has however expressed appreciation to Mukono community for what she has termed as a joint-effort operation to curtail the insecurity that had gripped different parts of the district and caused unrest.
Mukono had last month been at the forefront in media reports with regard to insecurity characterized by machete wielding attackers who killed and robbed travellers at night, waylaid travellers and snatched especially ladies’ purses, mobile phones and other items.
Mukono Municipality Principal Health Officer, Dr. Anthony Kkonde was among the many people who were cut by the panga-wielding gangs who left him incapacitated to the extent that he is still nursing wounds at Nakasero hospital in Kampala, over a month ever since the incident happened. At least two people were killed and more than 10 are still nursing wounds.
As the panga-wielding gangs mostly operated in Mukono Municipality, the rampaging robbers were also reported to have targeted domestic animals including goats and pigs which they used to slaughter at the owners’ homes, left behind internal organs of the animals and took the carcasses.
While addressing the media in her office on Thursday, Hajat Ndisaba said her office organised an open-ended general operation involving police, the UPDF, DPCs, OCs, community liaison officers, OC operations, internal security organisation operatives, local council officials of all levels and members of the public, in which some culprits were apprehended.
The RDC attributed the success scored so far to co-operation by all stakeholders, especially tips from locals to security operatives, adding that the arrangement would continue until the situation is conclusively brought under control.
She warned that as children prepare to go back to school, unscrupulous people are getting ready to target them and rob them of school fees and their belongings, and advised parents to avoid giving the children fees in cash and instead use the student’s code system to pay through banks and Mobile Money cente agents.
Ndisaba further advised the parents to escort their children up to school to avoid nasty incidents where the children normally lose their property on the way to school especially in taxi parks.
Turning to taxi and bodaboda operators, Hajat Fatuma advised them to be cautious of thieves who take advantage of the period and pose as transporters with the prime objective of stealing learners’ property.
“Let them get organized and increase numbers of their guides on the roads, and deny chance to the so-called ‘lubyanzas’ (irregular bodaboda cyclists) to operate along routes used by recognized transporters,” the RDC advised.
Kkansala Agaanye Okufuluma mu Kkanso Mwe Bamugobye Poliisi Emukutte