Police says Komamboga bomb attack was an act of domestic terror

Police have said whereas the exact group is not yet known, the Saturday bomb attack was an act of domestic terror.

One person was killed and three others injured during a bomb blast at a popular eating joint at Komamboga, a Kampala suburb on Saturday evening.

Updating the country up the investigations, Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said preliminary investigations have linked the attack to a domestic terror cell.

“The joint team of bomb experts has established that the explosion was out of a crude device assembled using local materials of nails and other metallic fragments. All indications suggest an act of domestic terror,”Enanga said.

“From the way it was planned, the radius covered, crude materials used , it was an act of domestic terror.”

According to the police no specific group whether internal or external has been identified as having masterminded the attack but noted investigations will soon avail more information.

“We cant confirm the group behind the attack. No group has come out to claim responsibility. We haven’t yet established the group behind the attack but we shall soon get them.”

Following the incident, many people, especially social media commentators claimed that the place which was attacked is frequented by VIPs and that the attackers targeted these people.

However, the police spokesperson said investigations are yet to indicate that the attackers targeted VIPs.

“The motive of the attackers is not yet clear. However, the attackers were not sophisticated at all according to information we have. They came purposely to inflict damage,” he said.

Various commentators, especially on social media blamed security for taking lightly the recent warning by the UK government of an impending terror attack on Uganda.

However, Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga insisted that the said warning was never specific.

“The respective advisories and terror alerts by the UK and France were not discriminate in nature and required specific details which were not availed,”Enanga said.

“Matters of security and safety are not a monopoly for security agencies but each and everyone’s responsibility. Since 2010, we have foiled so many acts of terror and dismantled several domestic terror cells. We would rather look for solutions needed to fight such acts of domestic terror.

The police spokesperson said some of the lessons learnt from the Komamboga incident include being vigilant, observing standard operating procedures and observing curfew among others that he said had been disregarded.

According to the police commander, a team has been dispatched to review the posture of the police and its commanders before and after the attack.

He noted that the team will review to see if there was laxity on the side of police and how they responded to the attack.

President Museveni earlier on Sunday said the perpetuators behind the attack whom he termed as pigs will soon be arrested.

In July, security arrested several suspects who are alleged to have masterminded the attack on Gen. Edward Katumba’s vehicle killing his daughter and driver.

Police said the suspects were part of a domestic terror cell that was beginning to form up in the country.

Security has always blamed a number of attacks in the country to the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group operating in the volatile Eastern part of DRC and is said to have links to the Islamic State group

In 2010 twin blasts at Kabalagala and Kyadondo targeting fans watching the World Cup final left 76 people dead.

Somalia based Al Shabaab terrorist group which was linked to Al Quaeda then claimed responsibility for the attack as a revenge for Uganda sending troops to Somalia under the AMISOM in 2007.