A series of gruesome murders and terrorist acts disturbed the peace of the people of greater Masaka especially in the districts of Masaka and Lwengo.
According to media reports, the first two murders happened in Lwengo on July 23rd.It became the headline story on every major TV station and newspaper outlet reporting concurrent murders in the districts of Lwengo and Masaka every night until the August 31st.
At the end of the murder spree, close to 30 people had succumbed to death from machete cuts and hit by blunt objects. The mode of operation carried out by these terrorists in Masaka and Lwengo carried common similarities of targeting individuals of advanced age and vulnerable found moving during night time.
The terrorism in the Greater Masaka Region was a shambolic acts of violence orchestrated and planned by organised groups of people probably in the name of dirty politics. These groups hired disgruntled aspects of the youth often intoxicated on illegal substances to murder defenceless elderly people. The objective of these groups is to terrorise the public with the intention of destabilizing the government and forcing regime change.
President Museveni while speaking about the murders in a ceremony in early September commissioning prison warders revealed that the murders were perpetuated by political actors.
The president said;
“These are people who think that they can destabilize NRM and Uganda. This is just self-deception. No force can defeat us either politically or militarily, like those people who have been attacking old people.”
Self-Deceit, greed and dirty politics is driving some elements of the opposition to sponsor crime terrorising innocent people with the aim of insinuating a failed state that is incapable of guaranteeing the safety and security of its citizens.
Joint security operations as revealed by police spokesperson, Fred Enaga speaking to the media on September 6th, indicated that investigations into the viscous murders in Lwengo and Masaka led to arrests of 60 suspects, screening 23 who admitted to participating in the murderous rampage. The police further revealed that the assailants operated in two domestic terrorist cells operating independently in Masaka and Lwengo.
Fred Enaga also revealed to the media that locals interviewed by the police spoke of anonymous letters and paintings on walls dropped in villages before the acts were carried out.
The police indicated that the authors of the letters remain unknown, but were however targeting selected individuals in the community such as NRM leaders, local leaders and businessmen.
Ssewanyana and Ssegirinya implicated
On September 7th, MPs Allan Ssewanyana of Makindye West and Mohammed Ssegirinya of Kawempe North were charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with the Masaka murders.
In a court session broadcasted on local TV station NTV on September 14th, the state represented by senior Resident State Attorney Richard Birivumbuka slapped two other charges on Ssegirinya and Ssewanyana of terrorism and aiding and abiding terrorism.
The state alleges that the two legislators and other groups still at large in the period from January to August 2021 took part in killing people in the Masaka Region.
The accusations against the legislators if found to be true will further reveal how desperate some elements of the opposition have become in their agony for power and desire for regime change.
The mixture of common criminality and terrorism in the Greater Masaka Region was an organised act of insurgency by groups intending to overthrow the NRM government that has ensured the peace and stability of Ugandan citizenry for the past 35 years. They were acts inspired by self-Deceit, greed and dirty politics.
