I saw bomb blow up my MoMo customer – witness

Jadress Ninsiima, a mobile money and MoMo agent, survived the bomb blast on Parliament Avenue by a hair’s breadth but her customer was not so lucky.

The explosion tore through the avenue and numbed pedestrians, hawkers, and workers on the pavement of nearby Raja Chambers, Jubilee House, Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs, and the Office of the Inspectorate General of Government (IGG).

Ninsiima, who operates her business on Parliament Avenue sidewalk, said she reported to work as usual, readied her stall and newsstand and waited for her Mobile Money customers.

But barely a minute after meeting her last customer, the bomb exploded.

“At 10am, a MoMo customer walked over to deposit Shs60,000 from his Shs100,000. I didn’t have the change and moved five metres away from my stall to get some change. He walked away. As I walked back, I met another client, Mr Christopher Sunday.

I asked whether he wanted to make a deposit, but he said no. No sooner had I moved off two metres away than the bomb exploded and Sunday disappeared in the blast, fireball and thick smoke.

“The vehicles exploded into fireballs as glass windows were shattered and flew about, injuring people.

My workmates, guards, and pedestrians dashed towards Café Pub down the street as boda boda riders lay about, injured, and bleeding. I cried like a baby,” she said.

Sunday was a civil Engineer at Kobol Construction Company that operated from Raja Chambers.

After the bomb blast

The bomb had injured tens of people and shattered windows of nearby buildings.

Body parts were strewn all over the street as blood soaked the street.

After some 10 minutes, the police arrived with government, Red Cross, and Kampala Capital City Authority ambulances whizzing in to carry off the dead and injured.

“We were later cleared off the street by police as the security officials and scene of crime officers and forensic officers took over for two days. All our merchandise was destroyed or lost,” she said.

The Mulago Hospital deputy executive director, Dr Rosemary Kusaba Byanyima, on Tuesday released the list of 33 people who were admitted to their causality ward, many of whom were police officers.

The police spokesperson, Mr Fred Enanga, on Tuesday said six people died on spot including three suicide bombers. One person died later that night, bringing the total number of those killed to seven. At least 33 people were injured in the attack.

“I had escaped the bomb explosion by a hair’s breadth but my client Sunday Cristopher and many others are no more,” Ninsiima said.