The past few days had not been easy for the residents of Malaba Town in the Tororo district of Uganda. There had been different reports regardings cases of waylaying and break-ins from the residents and the shop owners of the city. Groups of unidentified thugs are said to be the ones behind the attacks.
According to available information, several people in the town have been assaulted and have lost an unspecified amount of money and property as a result of the attack. People have reported different incidents of thugs raiding their shops or other properties at night too.
The major center of the attack is the Ofinya Trading Center which is located on the Malaba-Tororo highway. The thugs who are believed to be behind the activities have concentrated in the area and they proceed their operations from there.
There had been different reports of thugs terrorizing small business owners in the area by breaking into their premises.
Looking closely at the incidents that have been happening around Malaba Town, a shopkeeper named George Osore became the latest victim of the attacks from the thugs. Osore owns a small business in the town but his shop was looted by the thugs.
The looters allegedly dug in through the wall of the shop and took an unspecified amount of goods from the shop. The same gang also broke into a house that was located close to Osore’s shop. They reportedly stole a motorbike from the house.
The following day after looting the store owned by George Osor, the gang also broke into a drug store in the town. This time, it is suspected that the gang used a master key to break into the shop.
They also looted a barber shop that belonged to a man named John Emuria. Different equipment from the shop, including the chairs from the shop were stolen by the gang.
According to the statement of George Osore, who is one of the affected residents, the town had never experienced burglary or break-ins of this kind ever. He also added that the rise in burglary and other threats could have been a result of the hard economic situation that has come about in the country.
One of the major reasons for this is the additional precautions and measures taken by the government in order to put an end to the smuggling cases on the Uganda-Kenya border, which generally takes place through the clearing and forwarding business.
While the crimes are on a constant rise in the town of Malaba, the authorities are accused of not taking the necessary measure to address these issues or to help the citizen who had been the victims of these attacks.
According to the statement of another victim of the attack John Emuria, the police allegedly asked him to buy papers needed to record his statement in order to file the case. According to Emuria’s statement, the desk officer at the station stated that the office was short of stationery supplies.
Emuriaa also went on to state that the officers at the police station asked him for money needed for transportation in order to visit the site of the crime.
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Emuria said that instead of paying the money, he offered a lift to the officers on his motorbike but the police officers again asked for a vehicle, saying that there were too many.
The events that followed were also not the best behavior expected from authorities at a time like this, Enuria also stated that he got a special hire vehicle for the officers to visit the site but the officers disappeared from him and he was the only apple to reach them through Vincent Bright, who was the officer in charge.
The burglary and the associated crimes had been going on for almost two weeks in the town.
Details suggest that the start of these incidents dates back around two weeks when some unknown thugs started to attack residences with weapons like rifles, axes, pangas, and other deadly instruments and steal valuable commodities like money, electronic goods, and other such items.
The details also suggest that the long rains in the area during the night time also played an advantage to the thugs who carried out these criminal operations at night.
Andrew Mugisha Ororno, who is the Malaba Town Council LC3 chairperson said that the major target of the attackers were mainly business owners and also the employees who worked for the Uganda Revenue Authority, and the majority of these targets were attacked at night, then they least expect it.
Orono also stated that the vents were the first of their kind in the city and also, chances were high that the ones behind these attacks could have been flashed out from different parts of the country.
The statements from the victims of the attacks mentioned that some of them were forced out of their houses after the attackers cut through the burglar-proof doors of their homes. Some of them also stated that they were forced to lie down on the floor as the attackers scanned their properties and took away their valuables.
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