Museveni on Swift Bus Explosion: Dead person could have been the bomber

KAMPALA, UGANDA: President Yoweri Museveni has reacted to Monday evening’s Swift Bus explosive attack that happened along the Kampala-Masaka highway killing two people and leaving several others injured.

Mr. Museveni in his brief statement on Twitter reiterated that police and its sister security agencies are trying to establish whether one of the deceased could have been the bomber as the blast reportedly started from under the seat of one of the passengers killed.

“As the hunt for the criminals of Pader who were trying to blow up Lokech’s funeral service, Komamboga where one young Ugandan person was killed and 3 injured, continues, another low power explosive happened on a bus going to Ishaka, killing one person and injuring another one. The remaining 37 other passengers were safe plus the driver,” Mr. Museveni said in a tweet.

“The Police are investigating whether the person blown up was the one carrying the bomb or not. Preliminary reports say that the blast was from the seat and it killed only that person and injured the one who was sitting behind. The hunt continues, the clues are CLEAR and PLENTY.” Museveni added.

The explosion on Swift Bus comes three days after the bomb attack in Komamboga where a pork joint was targeted.

The scene according to the Police statement on Monday evening had been cordoned off pending a thorough assessment and investigation by the bomb experts.

Photos and videos shared on social media showed a man’s head leaning against a shuttered window, with reports indicating that he was one of the victims of the explosion.

The bus explosion happened just hours after the Islamic State (IS) group on Monday claimed responsibility for a deadly weekend bombing at a pork joint in Komamboga, a northern suburb of the capital, Kampala that police called an ‘act of domestic terrorism.’

Investigators said a 20-year-old woman was killed and three others injured in a blast at a popular roadside eatery in northern Kampala on Saturday evening.

Police said the crude bomb left underneath a table indicated the work of an unsophisticated local outfit, and played down any connection to foreign networks.

However in a message sent via its communication channels, the Islamic State’s Central Africa Province said it carried out the attack, and claimed it killed two people and injured five.