Ugandan police may not have heard the gunshots which killed senior police officer Muhammad Kirumira because of the loud noise from a nearby church, President Yoweri Museveni has said.
Gunmen on a motorcycle taxi, known in Uganda as a boda boda, shot dead Mr Kirumira on Saturday as he was driving near his home in Bulenga town in the central region.
A woman who was also in the vehicle was also killed.
His killing was the latest in a series of fatal shootings of politicians and police officers, raising fears about growing insecurity in Uganda.
Mr Kirumira was the former district commander of Buyende, and a video in which he urges people to expose the “mafia to save the state” has been widely circulated on social media since his death:
Speaking on state television on Sunday night, Mr Museveni denounced the killers as cowardly pigs.
He added: There was police in the area… but they said they didn’t hear the gunshots. It is possible they didn’t hear because there is a church nearby and in church, we are always shouting as if God is deaf.”
Mr Museveni vowed that police will fill the security “gaps” that killers were exploiting, and added:
The electronic identification of boda bodas would have helped us to identify these people quickly.”
