Tension is high in Masaka city following anonymous letters dropped by unidentified thugs threatening to attack residents and Masaka army barracks. The life-threatening leaflets were recovered from Kigamba cell, Kimanya ward, in the Kimanya-Kabonera division. In the anonymous leaflets that are printed on A4-sized papers, the thugs are threatening to attack several residential premises in the area including the home of the LC I Chairperson, Jamir Mawanda.
They have also threatened to attack the UPDF Mechanized Brigade at Kissagirwa, Equator University of Science and Technology, Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, and four primary schools. The thugs accused the listed targets of frustrating their mission of getting money and unspecified apparatus. Cissy Sylvia Naava, one of those listed among the targets, says that the leaflets have triggered a lot of fear among residents in the area.
She indicates that some of them are even afraid of moving beyond their compounds, given the earlier precedent in the region, when thugs would threaten and indeed strike and harm some of their targets.
Matia Kakooza, the former Kimanya-Kabonera Division LC III Chairperson, who was listed among the targets, says the threats cannot be taken lightly, adding that they resolved to call for security meetings in the affected cells to find ways of neutralizing the threats.
According to Kakooza, their area is currently registering an influx of suspicious groups of people including youth who come under the pretext of looking for employment. He suspects that such people whom he says include aliens from the neighboring countries could be behind the threats.
Moses Nanoka, the Masaka City Police Commander confirms that their intelligence teams have obtained copies of the leaflets and are analyzing them. He explains that in the meantime, they have considered heightening joint security operations in the area as well as making additional deployments on the listed institutions as a response to the threats.
Notably, in 2019, similar threatening leaflets were thrown in the areas around Masaka including at the home of the then Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi in Kizungu zone, Masaka city. The thugs then demanded money from their targets or else risk being killed.
