Africa-Press – Uganda. There is growing fear among people living in Bujumbura, Kyarwabuyamba, Rusaka all cells in Hoima City West due to thugs terrorizing the area.
Many have been left with wounds after being attacked on their way home and others inside their homes.
The locals including the division mayor Robert Ruhigwa who share the plight say there is no padlock the thugs can’t open.
According to leaders every time they notify police they only give excuses of how they don’t have much power with the entire division not having a police patrol.
Racheal Ihimbazwe , 28, says she was attacked by thugs as she returned home at around 11pm and everything was taken.
She narrates that the thug who wore a mask forced the door open and in the resultant scuffle, they hacked her in the head and even efforts to make an alarm didn’t yield anything.
Her phones and money were taken by the thugs.
” Arriving home at 11pm I found my door open, entering everything was taken got confused only to see a man small tall jumping on me in a scuffle he hit something on the head, made an alarm but no one came to my rescue,” Ihimbazwe narrated.
Ihimbazwe says after sometime lying down helplessly, some neighbors turned up only to see her in a pool of blood.
She was taken to a medical facility where she spent close to two weeks before recuperating.
A similar story is of Emmanuel Wamani, 25 who says his brother Godfrey Asiimwe is currently admitted to Mulago hospital after being attacked by thugs masked up at night, leaving him unconscious.
“They found him in the house, banged the door gained entry, hit him, took money and runway. It is seven days but he is not in any way recovering. The cases of thugs attacking people both moving and those in their houses are many in Hoima city west,” Wamani said.
The glaring state of insecurity in Hoima City West division is confirmed by Emmanuel Kaahwa, the Bujumbura East cell and Hoima City west division mayor Robert Ruhigwa who say moving past 8pm has become extremely risky for everyone.
” Now as a chairman what can i do? The thugs attack people with iron bars and pangas. Now what we are only telling people is to jointly coordinate with the local council and we form mayumba kumi so that we can protect ourselves because police seem to be on leave.Everyday you receive a case of an attack on people walking home even in houses,” Kaahwa said.
Ruhigwa said, ” The entire Hoima City West is not safe. We don’t know who to run to because when we talk to police they claim they don’t have manpower. The entire division has less than 30 police. These cant patrol the 70 villages that make up the division.”
The Hoima City west mayor Ruhigwa says the most unfortunate thing is that when they run to police help they are only informed of how they don’t have manpower with the entire division not having a patrol vehicle for night patrols, a thing he says has given leeway for insecurity to take course.
“The entire division doesn’t have even a police patrol, no motorcycles. They are just there chilling as poor Ugandans have sleepless nights. Especially now that it is towards festive season, insecurity is likely going to go higher,” Ruhigwa said
However, the Hoima City West Resident City Commissioner Sarah Nanyanzi acknowledges the problem which she attributes to increasing ghettos in the area before she faulted Local Csouncil one for not being keen to know people who come to their villages.
She says as security they are making strategies on how to deal with the gangs.
” As security we know the problem of insecurity in Hoima City West. It is mainly due to the many ghettos but also unemployment. I also want to caution LCs to ensure that they register every person who comes to their area,”Nanyanzi said.
The Albertine region police spokesperson Julius Alan Hakiza acknowledges the problem of insecurity and lack of enough man power but calls on leaders to cooperate with police.
He says plans are underway to intensify operations targeting criminal gangs terrorising the community.
“We are planning to have a number of operations, but of course we encourage local leaders to work with us so that we can weed out of these wrong elements from the community”, Hakiza said.
For now most people in the villages of Bujumbura, Kyarwabuyamba Rusaka and Kinubi are living in fear since of being attacked.
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