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The Speaker of Parliament, Rt Hon Anita Among, has directed government security agencies to expeditiously investigate and reprimand those behind the gruesome attack on Mpondwe -Lhubiriha Secondary School in Kasese District on Friday night.
“We want to condemn this loss in the strongest terms and such acts should be investigated and the perpetrators should be brought to book,” Speaker Among directed during plenary on Tuesday.
The attack, blamed on suspected Allied Defence Forces (ADF) rebels, left at least 42 people, including five students.
Speaker Among’s directive is also in line with government’s pledge to trace and capture those behind the attack.
Following the attack, President Museveni ordered deployment of more troops on the DRC-Uganda border.
Speaker Among directed govt to present a statement on the Kasese attack
Suspected Allied Democratic Forces(ADF) rebels attacked the school on Friday, 16 June 2023 and killed 42 people and abducted others.
The school is located in Mpondwe at the border of Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The Speaker who had earlier asked the Minister for Education to present the statement changed her position following a procedural matter by Kira Municipality MP, Hon. Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda who wondered why a security issue would be addressed by a minister in the education sector.
“Can we have a report tomorrow from the Defence Ministry? Let us not gamble but debate from an informed point,” Among directed.
Speaker Among said the killings and abduction of students of Lhubirira Secondary School have opened old wounds.
“You can imagine you wake up thinking your child is at school but you get the news that the child has been burnt. This opens afresh the pain of previous tragedies such as the 1998 incident at Kichwamba Technical institute in Kabarole District where students were burnt,” she said.
Among added that, ‘we also had the abduction of Aboke girls in Oyam District in 1996 and the 1991 incident where students of Sacred Heart School in Gulu District were abducted by the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels’.
President Yoweri Museveni ordered for increased deployment of the army in the area and to also hunt down the rebels who retreated back to the DRC through what the security has described as porous border points.