September 08, (THEWILL) – President Yoweri Museveni has urged vigilance among Ugandans, saying that “your job here is to see anybody” that you do not recognise as part of your community.
In a presidential address on Thursday, Museveni directed worship centres and recreational places across the country to ensure visitors present their national identity cards (IDs) before accessing their facilities.
“Don’t allow anyone you don’t know to enter your church, to enter your mosque. No strangers should enter your church. They must be challenged, isolated and reported to the Police,” he said.
He urges hotels and real estates to ask for particulars of visitors, including identity cards bearing their photos.
“There is a gap between the hotel people and the landlords,” he said, referring to the terror threat in Bunamwaya. “Remember that a terrorist must sleep somewhere at night,” he added.
The President’s address came days after security forces arrested seven people they suspected to be terrorists. The police said they recovered six explosive devices that the suspects were going to use to carry out attacks.
Museveni said if terrorists are blocked from hotels and other places of lodging, then they are limited to staying with their own families, considering that “many of these groups don’t have many sympathizers, who would risk housing them”.
Speaking about recent terror attempts in Kampala, including one at Miracle Centre Cathedral where a suspected terrorist was intercepted by security, the Ugandan leader said the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence (CMI) has arrested seven people involved, adding that security operatives know mainly the planners of such terror threats but usually not the executors of the mission.
“The planners are in Congo. So, we are going for them. The Congo Government has allowed us. Apart from hunting the ones in the forests, which we have been doing since 2021, we shall go for these ones who are sending these young people to kill young people,” he added.
