Ugandan minister escapes assassination, daughter, driver killed

Gunmen opened fire at a car carrying a Ugandan government minister in an attempted assassination on Tuesday, wounding the former army commander and killing his daughter and driver, the military and local media said.   

 Four attackers on motorcycles sprayed bullets at a four-wheel drive vehicle carrying General Katumba Wamala, the Minister of Works and Transport, in the Kampala suburb of Kisasi, local television station NBS reported.   
 President Yoweri Museveni condemned the attack, blaming it on criminals, terrorists and “pigs who do not value life”. In a Twitter post, he said that authorities already had clues in the case, and the criminals responsible would be defeated.   

 Images circulating on social media showed Wamala with his mouth open, in apparent distress beside the car and his light-coloured trousers splattered with blood.  Police investigators later combed the area, poring over bullet holes in the car’s windows and body and casings on the ground.   

 A government official said a local resident was also shot and wounded in the incident and was in hospital.   
Wamala once served as head of Uganda’s police, which over the years has been accused of human rights abuses by rights groups.   

 There have been several unsolved assassinations and mysterious deaths of high profile officials in the east African country in recent years that have fuelled speculation about perpetrators and their motivations.   

 Victims have involved a lawmaker, a senior police officer, the country’s top public prosecutor, senior Muslim leaders and others. Nearly all were committed by gunmen on motorcycles.   
KAMPALA REUTERS June 1, 2021