President Museveni says the recent outbreak of violence in Western Uganda is nothing more than tribal clashes and has been contained.
Museveni blamed failures on the part of his intelligence machinery, President Museveni said that the attackers were inspired by domination sentiments among the Bakonzo who are opposed to the existence of another kingdom in Rwenzori region other than that of Obusinga of Wesley Mumbere and Tooro.
But Museveni said the attackers have no capacity to cause more chaos judging by the defeat they suffered when they attempted to attack an army post 39BN at Kanyamirima.
While criticising intelligence agencies for failing to pre-empt the attacks, > Museveni said the state is now capable of dealing with such schemes.
Museveni said: “Fortunately Uganda has got a capable State that is able to deal decisively and expeditiously with such schemes although, of course, there was a failure of intelligence. How did these people weave such a scheme without being pre-empted? What were the GISOs doing?
“However, their main effort, which was to enter the camp of 39BN was decisively defeated. In their limited thinking, they thought it was a light matter to attack UPDF.”
Museveni traced the origins of the current tribal tensions to schemes by the Bakonzo to dominate other tribes in the sub-region such as the Bamba and Mupalya.
“On account of those chauvinistic ideas being banded around for so long, it seems some groups hatched this criminal scheme that has caused the death of so many people. Apart from killing 51 of the attackers, we have captured 65 others.
He added: “We shall get to the truth and will punish those involved. In the meantime, the country should not get anxious about this scheme. It was defeated right on the first day of its execution even before the full potential of the UPDF has been mobilized. This scheme is doomed to total failure.”
Other analysts have however doubted claims that the attacks, which mostly targeted army and police installations, could have been inspired by tribal sentiments.
Some argue that if the attackers had indeed targeted the Bamba, Basongora, Banyabindi and Bagabo as the government claims, they would have ventured into indiscriminate killing of those people.
