Two dead in suspected bomb blast at metal workshop in Buikwe

Ballistic experts at the scene where a suspected bomb killed two people at Triangle Village ,Njeru Municipality ,Buikwe District on January 13, 2025. PHOTO/GODFREY MASIKO
What you need to know:
- “ It will be helpful if owners of those factories always involve ballistic experts to inspect trucks loaded with scrap materials before offloading them at their premises . Sometimes such scrap materials are imported from outside the country.
Police in Njeru in Buikwe District are investigating a suspected bomb blast that killed two people on spot on Monday afternoon as they were trying to cut a cylindrical object for scrap.
The incident about 1pm at Mambo Vincent’s Metal Workshop in Triangle Village, Njeru Municipality ,Buikwe District .
According to Ms Hellen Butoto, the Ssezibwa Police spokesperson , their preliminary investigations reveal that , at about 1pm Mr Emmanuel Tumwebaze, now deceased, came to the workshop with an old metal cylinder and asked Ayub Panda and David Mugogo –both workers at the workshop to help him cut it into pieces and get scrap .
In the process of cutting it , Butoto said the object exploded killing both Panda and Tumwebaze on the spot .
“One person identified as Mr David Magogo who sustained injuries is receiving treatment at Njeru Medical Centre,” Butoto said .
Mr Mugogo said the man[Tumwebzae ] who brought the object was not known to them .
"We didn’t know that man , but he came to us asking us to cut his metal. I checked him 3 times ,but my co-worker, the deceased, insisted" he said.
"The metal was scary in its appearance , but my colleague insisted that he wanted to make money for lunch, I joined him in cutting ,but I saw smoke. I moved a distance before it burst, that is why I received injuries. " Mr Mugogo said.
He said the whole area was covered in a cloud of dust and thick black smoke.
Ms Butoto said it is not yet clear where Tumwebaze picked the cylindrical object .
Mr Peter Okoboy ,an eye witness and the Chairperson of Njeru Nile Market heard a loud burst, which he thought was an accident. However, a few moments later ,he discovered it was a bomb blast that went off .
“ I was inside a room when I heard an alarm that was followed a heavy blast ,It shook the ground like an earthquake even the room where I was sitting was shaking,” he said
Besides the two victims at the scene, Okoboy ,said the explosive ripped through the roof of a house next to the workshop.
Another shrapnel, Okoboy said, flew mid-air and dropped about 300 metres away.
Mr Gilbert Opolot, a private security who declined to mention the company he works for , said factories producing metals sometimes import scrap materials with undetonated ammunition related items and many workers have fallen victims .
“ It will be helpful if owners of those factories always involve ballistic experts to inspect trucks loaded with scrap materials offloading them at their premises . Sometimes such scrap materials are imported from outside the country ,most especially from South Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo which we all know have suffered wars for many decades ,’’ he explained
Ms Butoto said ballistic experts visited the scene and examined the metal that exploded.
“They are the ones to tell us the type of bomb that went off at that workshop,” she said
She further warned the public against tampering with abandoned objects.
Due to past armed struggles in the country, there are many explosives that were abandoned by fighters in the wilderness and buildings.
On February 1,2021 , six children were killed and five others sustained grievous injuries after a bomb exploded at Maji ll Refugee Settlement in Adjumani District .
On October 29,2021 a bomb believed to be one of the unexploded ordinance abandoned years back during the early 1980 liberation war struggle killed three children at Ssegalye Village in Semuto Sub-county, Nakaseke District .
The explosive claimed the lives of Pius Kiwuwa, Shield Odongo and Michael Kiyingi all from the same family.
On November 11,2021,a scrap dealer Alfred Mandela at Kapeeka Town in Nakaseke District has died from injuries sustained after he unknowingly hit an unexploded Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) mistaken for metallic scrap a device believed to be part of unexploded military ordnance exploded at a scrap store.
On September 11 2019 , a bomb exploded, killing one person and injuring seven others in Matugga, an outskirt of Kawempe Division.
Due to past armed struggles in the country, there are many explosives that were abandoned by fighters in the wilderness and buildings.