After 10 days of investigation, leads are pointing to two Pakistani nationals who include a top manager at a Ugandan telecom company as the main financiers, and a Yemeni national as the mastermind of the July 11 synchronised bombings that killed at least 76 people in Kampala, reliable sources say.The new findings widen the investigation that had hitherto largely focused on the Al Shabaab, an Islamist militia in Somalia reportedly with links to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda that claimed responsibility for the bombings and issued a congratulatory message to the bombers.
The Yemeni national whose identity could not readily be established entered the country in January this year through the eastern Busia border post, sources close to the investigation say. He is then said to have approached a land lady in Kisigula Zone, Mutundwe, a Kampala suburb, for accommodation. He rented her six-bedroom house at Shs 600,000 per month for six months. He paid four months' rent straight and promised to pay the balance later.The Yemeni man moved into the spacious house quietly, with a young man believed to be of Ugandan origin. In April, the Yemeni man stealthily left the house to the young man, who is now believed to have been the suicide bomber at the Ethiopian Village Restaurant in Kabalagala, according to sources.The land lady, who doesn't live on the premises, did not notice the suspicious behaviour of the young man and whenever she went to demand the balance on rent, the man would humbly tell her that his boss (the Yemeni) 'had gone on safari and would be back soon to pay the money,' our sources told us.
In the meantime, the house became a bee-hive of activity with lots of people moving in and out, including teenage girls, sources told us. The young man, sources say, remained holed up in the house, hardly moving out. "He would pass the money for cigarettes over the fence because he did not want to expose himself," sources told us.It only came to the attention of the landlady that the young man occupying the house was a key suspect in the bombings when the police released pictures of the two reconstructed faces of the suspected suicide bombers. After recognising the face of the young man, the land lady approached the police. Investigators have since interrogated her, as well as the neighbours.Forensic experts led by FBI agents ransacked the house on Tuesday for about six hours. The house, according to our sources, was virtually empty without any furniture save for a single mattress and a pair of bed sheets.We have been told that investigators discovered what they believe to have been components of the bomb, in the dinning room area, some handwritten maps of unidentified places, bus receipts, cigarette butts and many cans of Coca Cola and Pepsi. They also discovered phone contacts written on a brown sheet of paper, and interestingly one of the phone numbers belongs to a policeman. An identity card of a school girl studying in one of Uganda's most prominent girls' secondary schools was found.Investigators suspect that it is at this house with a wall fence and black gate - that the bomb attacks were planned. The plan sources say, was probably put together between January, when the Yemeni moved in, and April when he left. The Yemeni national is believed to have been the mastermind of the process. Sources say it's likely he monitored the progress from Yemen.Meanwhile, forensic experts on Monday discovered the torso believed to be of the young man (the black suicide bomber) at the Ethiopian Village Restaurant in Kabalagala. The torso, according to reliable sources, was found on the rooftop of a tiled house, after the Chinese Medical Centre, about 100 meters away from the restaurant. Investigators also established that the same type of bomb that went off at Kyadondo Rugby Club was used at Kabalagala, having found similar fuses, wires and traces of TNT powder at the scene.
Telecom manager
In another twist, Police last week arrested a manager of a leading telecom company in connection with the bombings, sources told usThe manager, who is Pakistani, is believed to have been one of the financiers of the suspected terrorists who set off the bombs. We have been told that the police are in possession of phone records that indicate back and forth phone calls made between this manager and some of the suspected terrorists who are under arrest. Apparently, the same manager had also reportedly exchanged e-mails with an unnamed Al Shabaab spokesperson in Somalia, our sources told us.The arrest of the manager came after security agencies failed to arrest another Pakistani, suspected to have been in cohorts with him. We have been told that in the aftermath of the twin bombings, the Rapid Response Unit (RRU) had been tasked to track the Pakistani and arrest him. But he fled after he was tipped off by an officer from the Joint Anti-Terrorism Task Force (JATT) in exchange for Shs 5 million. The Pakistani reportedly flew out of the country on July 15 at 4.00pm. The JATT operative who aided the escape is currently under detention. Police have also established that a day after he flew out, he tried to contact the arrested telecom manager by telephone.His arrest brings to three the number of Pakistanis arrested so far. On Friday, Police arrested two Pakistani sheikhs in Pallisa, who said they were spreading Islam. But the police suspect they could have been engaged in subversive activities.
New dimension
The involvement of Yemeni and Pakistani nationals brings a new dimension to the investigations. Ugandan security agencies had zeroed in on the Al Shabaab and the rebel ADF as the most likely masterminds of the attacks. But our sources told us that there appears to be a link between these two organisations and some militia groups in the Middle East and Pakistan, a melting pot for extremist organisations.President Museveni last week hinted at the Middle East link during a press briefing in Ntungamo.
"Those terrorists are sponsored apparently by some groups in the Middle East - those groups have a wrong and confused orientation both in terms of aims and methods. They seem to aim at narrow goals, chauvinistic goals, which have caused much havoc in the Middle East and that is why the Middle East is a hotbed of extremism," Museveni said.As for the Pakistani link, the Geopolitical Monitor, a Canadian open-source intelligence collection and forecasting service, last month established that Al Shabaab has close links with the Tehreek-e-Taliban, a militant group in Pakistan which believes in the creation of an umbrella group of Islamists who share the common goal of establishing Islamic states around the Horn of Africa. The Kampala bombings could have been a step in that direction.Our sources told us that investigations into the Kampala bombings are likely to take two or more months. The Mutundwe discovery represents a major step in the investigations but the police are not drawing many conclusions yet apart from the fact that the bombings were carried out by suicide bombers."There is strong evidence that these attacks were carried out by suicide bombers," Police Chief Maj Gen Kale Kayihura told journalists last Sunday as he released the reconstructed photos of the two suspected suicide bombers.We have also been told that security agencies had recently temporarily stopped some fuel trucks driven by Somalis from entering into the country on suspicion that they were illegally ferrying in their countrymen linked to terrorist activities. In fact, the fuel shortage experienced by some petrol stations recently is said to be related to this crackdown. We have however been told that the trucks have been cleared to come in but after thorough security checks.Asked to clarify on some of the information this newspaper has obtained about the investigation, Judith Nabakooba, the police spokesperson, was non-committal."All I can say is that we are progressing well and have made many findings," she told The Observer on Tuesday evening, adding that the police shall convene press briefings whenever they feel something needs to be communicated.
Edris Kiggundu analysis
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