President Museveni has hailed Uganda’s security agencies for ensuring the success of the just concluded Nyege Nyege festival in Jinja City amidst terror alerts by the UK and US embassies.
“I want to congratulate the security forces (UPDF, Uganda Police and the intelligence services) for successfully protecting the suspected sinners of Nyege Nyege in Jinja, until their function was over, without a single incident. This shows you the strength of the Uganda security system- to be able to guard such a long pre-announced massive public function, the threats of the terrorists notwithstanding,” Museveni said in a statement on Wednesday.
A few days before the festival the US and UK Embassies warned their citizens against going to Jinja quoting intelligence reports that indicated ADF planned to attack the festival.
However, revellers ignored the alerts and thronged the festival in big numbers.
In his latest statement, President Museveni, who has just returned from UAE on a state visit admitted that the ADF had sent “a few infiltrators to try and disrupt” the function.
He however blamed the US and UK embassies for the travel advisories sent out discouraging their citizens from participating in the festival.
“These are mistake makers. If the situation was so bad, it would be us to advise people not to come to Uganda, not the British and the Americans. We know what we are doing, always. Even if a mistake occurs, we know how to handle it. These advisories by some of these actors is another form of interference in our internal affairs by these elements,” Museveni said.
Organisers of the just concluded Nyege Nyege festival said this year’s event attracted over 20,000 revellers from Uganda, East Africa, Africa and the world at large.
The four-day event happened at the Source of the Nile in Jinja last week.
