Africa-Press – Uganda. The Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party has called for the repatriation of Ugandan soldiers who are on foreign missions to come back and defend Ugandans amid terror alerts.
“We are asking those in charge, the best thing would be to withdraw Ugandan forces from wherever they are to come and defend the borders of this country because the constitution of Uganda provides that. Our army’s major role is to protect and defend the people of Uganda, their lives, property and the borders,” Mr Harold Kaija, the party’s Deputy Secretary General, said on Monday during the weekly presser.
The concern follows the UK terror alert. The embassy urged people to avoid public places like bars, banks, markets, restaurants and public gatherings like churches and police stations and government premises.
The warning has since bred fears among Ugandans because a similar warning in 2021 was followed by bomb attacks at CPS and Parliamentary Avenue in which four people died and 33 were injured.
However, Mr Fred Enanga, the police spokesperson said on Monday expressed displeasure with the shallowness of the terror alerts.
“The police take such warnings very seriously but unfortunately, they are usually not so deep and particular about the target places. For instance, there are over 1,600 police stations and about 500 markets in the country,” he said.
He added: “We usually ask the people that give us the warnings to be detailed in their warning so that we strengthen our security in such targeted places but if they just leave the warning hanging, it becomes hard to monitor all the places. We do not underlook any news about national security.”
On another note, the FDC party downplayed the government’s decision on using Russian companies to manufacture digital number plates, tasking it to consider Ugandan companies.
“Bringing a foreign company, especially from Russia that has sanctions from the West is a war we cannot manage. In a country where we are saying ‘Buy Uganda, Build Uganda’, we have companies manufacturing number plates already but have not been given a chance. We are also told that the Russian companies have no record of manufacturing number plates,” Mr Kaija said.
He noted that the plan to switch the number plates is already encroaching on people’s privacy and that they are expensive for Ugandans to afford.
The government plans to begin the transition to digital number plates from October 1, 2023, at a cost of Shs735,000.
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