{"id":17199,"date":"2021-09-06T18:44:22","date_gmt":"2021-09-06T18:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/?p=17199"},"modified":"2021-09-06T15:58:32","modified_gmt":"2021-09-06T15:58:32","slug":"masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes","title":{"rendered":"Masaka murders: Locals flee homes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\">Uganda<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>A lthough joint security agencies have beefed up security in Masaka Sub-region and intensified the hunt for the killers, some residents are fleeing their homes fearing possible attacks by machete-wielding thugs who have wreaked havoc in the area, killing 26 people in the past one month.<\/p>\n<p>Local leaders say some residents, especially elderly persons, have expressed a sense of uncertainty about their safety in the area.<\/p>\n<p>Despite being advised not to desert their homes , their families have convinced them and taken them away.<\/p>\n<p>The attackers, who mostly target elderly persons, who are hit with blunt objects on the head, strike between 8pm and 6am, taking advantage of the curfew.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mr Ronald Kateregga of Kkingo Village, Masaka City, two residents in his village have so far abandoned their homes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have two families that have deserted their homes to stay with other relatives, these families of Mr Jawadu Kakeeto and Mr Steven Jjemba. They have genuine reason and we cannot stop them.Some people still have fear basing on what has been happening in the area in the past weeks, but I am sure they will come back, when they really feel safe,\u201d he said at the weekend.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI encourage others [residents] who have remained behind to be more vigilant, they should also avoid night movements because our vigilantes are at work together with police, and ready to detect where the assailants could be,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Lwengo, has been the epicentre of the night attacks where out of the 26 deaths,18 have been recorded in the district while the rest were from Masaka City and Bukomansimbi, Lyantonde, Sembabule, Rakai, and Kyotera districts.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Andrew Matovu, the chairperson Kyoko Village in Lwengo, said three elderly persons deserted their homes last week and relocated to Kampala.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI advise my people not to run away, instead they should work with us to see how we can overcome this situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Paul Bbira, the chairperson Mirembe Village, Lwengo, said residents who stay alone in houses are accommodated by others in the same locality to reduce their vulnerability to attacks .<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe found out that the killers fear attacking bigger families because they can ably fight back. So, those staying alone are advised to go to their close relatives or friends during evening hours and spend the night there, we are providing security to all those people to ensure they are safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A similar arrangement, according to Mr Aloysius Kibira, the chairperson Kkingo Sub-county, has been adopted in all villages in his area.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Joseph Kayemba, a resident of Kyoko Village, said he has since relocated to his brother\u2019s place in Mpigi District.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am in Mpigi with my brother who has a bigger family. There are a lot of threats at our village despite the presence of vigilante teams,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Kayemba said he hopes to return to his home village when the situation normalises.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Steven Ssebunnya, a member of the vigilante group in Kkingo Sub -county, said they encourage elderly persons, women and children to stay in their houses as the men move out to guard the villages.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are ready to guard all those people as they stay in the houses. We don\u2019t want them to abandon their villages as if they are aliens in this country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Herman Ssentongo, formerly Mityana Resident District Commissioner, but now posted to Lwengo, said he is yet to get in touch with the district security team and all village security committees to improve efficiency in the security of the area .<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going to strengthen the security teams at all levels and I urge our people not to run away from their villages. This is a temporary problem we are yet to fix ,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Some ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) top officials, including President Museveni, have blamed the killings on politicians, who they claim want to paint a bad image of the government, but Opposition members have since dismissed the claims ,saying government should focus on hunting for the killers instead of using politicians as a scapegoat.<\/p>\n<p>Police on Friday summoned two Opposition legislators Muhammad Ssegirinya (Kawempe North) and Allan Ssewanyana (Makindye West) for questioning over alleged sponsoring of killings in the sub-region .<\/p>\n<p>About 70 suspects have since been arrested in connection with the night killings , of which 10 were produced in court last Wednesday on charges of murder and attempted murder before being remanded to Masaka Ssaza Prison until September 15.<\/p>\n<p>This has brought some sigh of relief and no killing has been reported since last Monday, unlike the past weeks where a death or two would be reported every morning.<\/p>\n<p>It is now evident that machete-wielding thugs, who first gained notoriety in Masaka have already spread their wings in area parts of central region.<\/p>\n<p>On August 26 , a similar gang armed with machetes ,iron bars raided St. Joseph Catholic Parish in Busunju Town, Mityana District, beating up priests and nuns before stealing Shs23m,and an assortment of household items,including mobile phones and laptops.<\/p>\n<p>Last Tuesday, the thugs attacked Jiu Zhou Stone Company in Nakaseke District where they looted property and two guns.<\/p>\n<p>However, police later recovered the guns. On Saturday morning, their attempt to break into houses in Nabweru, Nansana Municipality failed after an alarm scared them off.<\/p>\n<p>This was the same situation at Jalamba Village, Mpigi District, where machete-wielding thugs raided a family on Sunday night, but residents swiftly mobilised themselves and chased them way, forcing them to abandon a machete and an axe at the scene.<\/p>\n<p><b>Govt appeal<\/b><\/p>\n<p>While meeting security chiefs from the sub-region in Masaka City on Friday, the Minister for Presidency, Ms Milly Babalanda, said the current wave of killings in the area may spread to other parts of the country. She asked leaders at all levels to mobilise the masses to rise up and defend themselves against the machete-wielding thugs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe current situation in Greater Masaka may not end in Masaka. Therefore, I challenge all our leaders to stand up to these threats and vigorously mobilise the people to defend themselves,\u201d Ms Babalanda said.<\/p>\n<p><b>Compiled by Al-Mahdi Ssenkabirwa, Noeline Nabukenya &amp;Ambrose Musasizi<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Uganda. A lthough joint security agencies have beefed up security in Masaka Sub-region and intensified the hunt for the killers, some residents are fleeing their homes fearing possible attacks by machete-wielding thugs who have wreaked havoc in the area, killing 26 people in the past one month. Local leaders say some residents, especially [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":17198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,8],"tags":[233,240,234],"class_list":["post-17199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","category-homepage-english","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-uganda","tag-uganda"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Masaka murders: Locals flee homes - Uganda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A lthough joint security agencies have beefed up security in Masaka Sub-region and intensified the hunt for the killers, ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Masaka murders: Locals flee homes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A lthough joint security agencies have beefed up security in Masaka Sub-region and intensified the hunt for the killers, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Uganda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-09-06T18:44:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/09\/img-61363a94d7d1f.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Masaka murders: Locals flee homes\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-09-06T18:44:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes\"},\"wordCount\":1031,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/uganda\/sites\/34\/2021\/09\/img-61363a94d7d1f.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Uganda\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"community\",\"homepage-english\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/uganda\/all-news\/masaka-murders-locals-flee-homes\",\"name\":\"Masaka murders: Locals flee homes - 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