PERSONAL OPINION ON 11/16 TWIN BOMB ATTACKS IN KAMPALA CITY

 By David Maclaren KIIZA

The daybreak was normal with everybody on rush hours to reach workplace with all routes entering and within the city filled with the usual traffic jam. However; three hours later that is 10 05hrs the first bomb blast occurred just in front of the Jubilee Insurance building on Parliament Avenue and 3 minutes later, another bomb blast occurred just near the main entrance to the Kampala Central Police station.

The two twin bomb blasts claimed 4 lives and 33 people critically injured.

My analysis is based on the fact that after a security press briefing at Police Headquarters in Naguru, a combined CCTV footage about the twin bomb blasts was released and it’s from this that questions whose answers may not be available.

I argue that the person in the footage at CPS was not the real terrorist but a mere misguided youth who didn’t know what he was carrying as a delivery boy because he looked confused because of his uncoordinated movement. What police terms as a detonator could have actually been a cell phone? The youth carrying a backpack bag was seen clearly fumbling to receive a phone call but unfortunately, the bomb blew off. From this line of argument, the youth in the footage wasn’t a terrorist.

Okay let’s assume this young man was a terrorist, this is what he could have done. Knowing that he was carrying a bomb in a backpack bag; he must have had prior surveillance of the target spot for some time and in the real-time of action, he would have walked confidently and smartly along Buganda road holding a phone like a detonator in his supposedly detonating hand ready to press the button, then head straight to CPS security entry checkpoint with many police officers stationed at that point and then blew himself off by pressing the button and that action would definitely claim so many lives for both police officers, civilians and any other automobile equipment like police fleet trucks, civilian cars and motorcycles and the whole world would know it was a terrorist act with a specific target.

Ask yourself, if I know I am the terrorist, then why move in the middle of the road and detonate the bomb to cause less impact? What would have been the main aim of such an action? Ideally this shows that this young man was just a delivery boy of a package to the unknown receiver as the real sender was in watch closely.

Let’s also look at the parliamentary avenue incident. CCTV footage shows two Boda bodas (motorcyclists) moving together towards the parliamentary building entrance, but in the same footage, there was a white car right in front of them just leaving roadside parking and also heading in the same direction. This means the car retarded or slowed down the speed of the motorcyclists and then the bomb blew off just before the jubilee insurance building. Keep in mind that parliamentary avenue has a number of government dignitaries and lawmakers’ offices implying that the security of that road is heavily guarded on a daily basis.

My argument here, why did police at Naguru during a press briefing, display only footage from one camera in front of Bauman's house and/or in front of the parliamentary building entrance. Aren’t there cameras in front of Uganda house and/or Jumbo plaza building and/or Nando’s restaurant? If there are no cameras in those areas, it’s understandable but if cameras exist, then where are those footages? Those footages are the only collaborating ones to clearly reveal the images of the perpetrators. Police need to explain who immediately helped them identify the third cyclist or person that escaped only to be shot at in Bwaise and the aftermath was a home search in Katooke Nansana and later death. Couldn’t police try to save this person from excessive bleeding their own bullet wounds if they were really interested for more leads about this terrorist cell in the city or Uganda at large?

Additionally, to my argument, I think these 2 motorcyclists, too were given packages to deliver to two separate different receivers on the parliamentary avenue in record time and since both were cyclists, they tried to race to catch up with time and as they joined the avenue, the slowed down and were just talking in close contact due to tight security checkup and congestion due to government vehicles and people there. However, the third person/cyclist the police chased and shot at was right behind these two cyclists and as they approached the congested roadside parking, the sender and/or third cyclist detonated the bombs right there since he could not go through security scrutiny at the checkpoint and from that point since he was a distance away from the blast, either a security guard or police officer suspected him and the chase was on.

Let’s assume that these 2 cyclists were terrorists and this is what they could have done. After knowing that they are carrying explosives(bombs) for whatever reasons known to them, they would have ridden their motorcycles straight right to the target points most probably up to the parliamentary building entrance security point and as security tries to ask them to immediately leave that main entrance or use another side entrance since its restricted to a few lawmakers and government dignitaries, then these cyclists would detonate the bombs since the police would not have checked their bags or any other packages and then the entire country and world would be teary as the terrorist target would be blown up and achieved their goal.

In conclusion, from these two separate bomb blasts, ask yourself. What were the actual or exact targets for these terrorists? What made them not hit their targets? Why was an extra bomb boxed in a gift package at the ground stand-alone transformer? Where were other bombs planted?

Personally, I would assume that the actual target Kampala Central Police Station and the bomb blast at parliamentary avenue was a divergent blast to disorganize police officers from all the Central Business District of Kampala trying to move to Parliament Avenue, and in due course the terrorist bomb blast the CPS down. The extra diffused bombed planted at the ground standalone transformer was a backup blast to blow off the then running for safety citizens in the busy constitutional square and surrounding business center. The transformer was to act as a catalyst to worsen the entire situation.

The opinion author is a Civil Eng, Statistician & Petroleum Engineer