The Police Crime Intelligence Directorate has arrested a Congolese national after a handheld grenade exploded in his house in Kampala.
Wasekeyi Ndahule, 39 year was arrested after an explosive rocked his house in Nakulabye in Kampala at around 4:30am.
Police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said when crimes of scene officers, forensics teams and counter terrorism officers searched the scene, several items of evidence value including a safety pin were recovered from the house.
"A further search in his house led our teams to two passports one for DRC and another for Burundi in the suspect's possession. Further investigations have indicated that the suspect is a Congolese refugee who sneaked the handheld grenade all the way from Congo into Uganda," Enanga said.
The police spokesperson said where the suspect first denied and insisted the grenade was hurled at him from an unknown person, evidence of a safety pin found in the house linked him to the explosive.
He said whereas the Congolese national has been charged with being in possession of a dangerous explosive, he is still being interrogated to find out his motive."
Being a Congolese national and a refugee who sneaked into the country from North Kivu presents a concern since the area where he comes from is known to habour ADF terrorist group that has wrecked havoc in Uganda by killing several people in various attacks.
The development comes barely a month after security arrested a man who made an Improvised Explosive Device(IED) that later "accidentally" exploded injuring him in Kampala.
The man, identified as Collins Mugabe, was a resident of Banda zone 2 , Nakawa Division in Kampala .
"Our teams were alerted by locals after one of the IEDs that Mugabe had manufactured went off when he mistakenly tampered with it," police told journalists late last month.
According to police, when the locals alerted police of the explosion that went off after 9pm, security cordoned off the home and during the day, a thorough search was carried out at the home leading to the recovery of another homemade bomb as well as other bomb making materials.
Among the materials allegedly found in the house include jerricans of nitric acid, methanol, ethanol, potassium nitrate, several wires, notes and text books on bomb making.
Security interrogated the suspect to establish his link to any of the terror groups and any potential targets on Ugandans.
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The recovery of a homemade bomb, a handheld grenade and other materials is an issue of concern since all the attacks on the county have been carried out using Improvised Explosive Devices made out of locally available materials.
These are materials readily available on the Ugandan market for anyone and there it makes it difficult to detect when one intends to use them for explosive making.
Ugandan security including the Police Crime Intelligence Directorate and the Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence have in the past two or so years since the twin blasts in Kampala at CPS and Parliamentary Avenue in November 2021 targeted sleeper cells by the Allied Democratic Forces(ADF) group which was recently designated as a terrorist outfit by the US.
Several suspected ADF members and agents have either being killed or arrested whereas several guns have been recovered and the cells busted.
