Opposition leader Col. Kizza Besigye has said, he suspects the NRM regime for creating the dreaded panga-wielding squad dubbed “Bijambiya” which has terrorized the residents of Greater Masaka in the recent past.
The terror in Masaka has claimed over 26 lives of which 20 people were killed in one month of August.
Political leaders across the country have come out to criticize government on slower response to combating this domestic terrorism.
Col. Kizza Besigye, a four –time- Presidential hopeful on Tuesday raised his opinion saying there is a likelihood that the State is responsible for these numerous murders.
“My first suspect would be the state,” Besigye told NBSTV.
He added that, “the second would be people with grievances caused by the State.”
He said that a section of marginalized Ugandans could have embarked on using violence to express discontent to the regime.
Besigye, however, didn’t labour to explain much the allegations he raised.
The Minister of Internal Affairs Gen. Kahinda Otafiire while on the same TV station last week confessed that government had lost its grip on Masaka, arguing that it could be the reason the murders are happening.
President Yoweri Museveni was hugely trounced in this area by opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine in the January Presidential polls.
The residents in Masaka voted opposition party National Unity Platform (NUP).
Political pundits contend that Besigye was alleging that the State is revenging vote of no confidence exhibited by locals of Greater Masaka.
Security has arrested over 20 suspects in Masaka and arraigned them in Court including two NUP MPs Allan Ssewanyana and Mohammad Ssegirinya who are currently incarcerated in Kitalya prison. The State linked them to these murders.
Security agencies have pitched camp in the area and for 10 days now, no single murder by Bijambiya squad has been reported.
Col. Besigye who has been out of action for sometime announced that he was folding his sleeves and would return to the trenches to fight for truth and justice.
Besigye has opposed President Yoweri Museveni for 21 years after breaking ranks in 1999, he then founded FDC which remains the powerful opposition party in Uganda.
However, he left FDC in 2012 and has since supritendend over a parallel organisation at Katonga Road in Kampala.
Besigye while in government served in different capacities; as personal physician to Museveni, UPDF political commissar, Minister of Internal Affairs, etc.
He is considered Museveni longtime political adversary.
In 2011 Besigye spearheaded a political revolution codenamed Walk to Work that almost brought the regime to an end.