Ugandans woke up to two things on Sunday 28/06/15, an assemblage of state security agencies along Entebbe road and a terror alert. The presence of heavy security always sends a chill down many a spine. But, it does not end at that, it starts a trail of speculation on what the unannounced occasion is; that calls for such heavy deployment.
The speculation pointed towards one thing in this case, the return of Amama Mbabazi from his trip abroad where he held a couple of interviews with international media houses that served to highlight his recent bid for presidency. On the other hand, a terror alert paints no rosy picture but terror -grief, horror and, insecurity. No one would want to fathom the July 2011 bombings of Kyadondo and the Ethiopian village.
The two events are essentially different but coincidentally point to each other. And only serve to awake your thoughts on the current state of this country. We need security (even if it that means heavy deployment) to fend off any terror threats but hey, these two somehow occurred at the same time. Which begged me to wonder if there was a subplot to the terror alert.
In the wake of a spate of terror attacks across the world in a space of one week; in Kuwait, Tunisia, Somalia and the other usual suspects in the middle East, one would not doubt a terror alert from the Uganda Police but then marry the terror alert with an expression of security might along Entebbe road on the day Former Ugandan Premier Amama Mbabazi is scheduled to return to Uganda and you get mixed signals -reading panic attack.
It has become common for anyone who seeks to oppose the current regime as we draw close to the election season to be met with stiff resistance. Rtd Col Kiiza Besigye has been on the receiving end of such resistance. From being tear gassed to being jailed on trumped up charges, he has seen it all. And in recent weeks, the arrest of Pro-Mbabazi Youth and pulling down of Mbabazi posters around the country resonates the resistance seen in the past emerge yet again to the latest individual with intent of challenging of the highest office in the land.
State security agencies will say the heavy deployment in areas where opposition figures are meant to appear and talk to the public is only meant to provide security and keep order however the subsequent reaction to the arrival the opposition figures and their entourages says otherwise. The police instead breed a frenzy when they take on the opposition figure with teargas and batons.
I have heard one too many people think out aloud, “wouldn’t the oppositions’ activities go on (relatively) peacefully if police didn’t turn up with tear gas and a show of might?”
Back, to the moral of my story, Mbabazi is now back into the country, the security detail that dotted Entebbe road last Sunday is back in the barracks or the official posts it is meant to be but the question still lingers in my head, was the terror alert issued hours to the return of Mbabazi to divert the minds of Ugandans from the resistance that awaited Mbabazi incase he tried to drive to Kampala from Entebbe with a procession? In case he attempted to throw a party for his followers?
This is only a thought, please interpret it as one and not the actual purpose of the deployment. Label it as a conspiracy thought that deserves no much deliberation as than a mere probing of your mind.
Comments
comments
