By Spy Uganda
Kampala: Political analyst and senior presidential advisor on media Joseph Tamale Mirundi and Internal Affairs Minister Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire have tasked the government to investigate Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) bosses over the recent killing of foreign tourists and a guide at Queen Elizabeth National Park in Kasese district in Western Uganda.
Unknown armed assailants on Tuesday attacked a tourist vehicle Queen Elizabeth National Park killing a South African and British tourists who were in Queen Elizabeth National Park for their honeymoon.
According to President Museveni and UPDF spokesperson Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye confirmed that Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) were behind the killing and further described the incident as being unfortunate and infuriating.
“A couple of tourists and the Ugandan driver with them were killed at around 1800hrs on the Katwe- Kabatooro murram road, by a small group of terrorists running away from our operations in Congo, as I had shared with you in a previous message. It was a cowardly act on the part of the terrorists attacking innocent civilians and tragic for the couple who were newlyweds and visiting Uganda on their honeymoon. Of course, these terrorists will pay with their own wretched lives,” Museveni said in a statement.
According to Museveni, the security agencies including UPDF, Police, Uganda Wildlife Authority are on the matter to ensure the assailants are brought to book but to also ensure “these mistakes do not happen again and that ADF is wiped out.”
However, commenting on the incident, Gen. Otafiire said that it is not right to conclude that ADF killed the tourists before investigation are done to establish the real killers behind the heinous noting that among the suspects under investigation are UWA bosses.
Furthermore, Tamale Mirundi noted that the first persons to benefit from the murder of the tourists are UWA bosses because the attack happened amidst ongoing fights at the Authority.
According to Mirundi, the main objective of the murder was to divert the ongoing investigations into the multibillion scandal where UWA bosses have been issuing fake gorilla permits and pocketing the funds.
Mirundi further added that the people who murdered the tourists wanted to send a clear message to their enemies in the authority who are insisting on investigating them that they have the capacity and power to put Uganda’s tourism sector down if they don’t back off and stop the investigations.
