BY BRIAN MUKALAZI
bmukalazi@ecmafrica.org

IT IS no longer news that on Tuesday, November 16, suicide bombers associated with the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an extremist group affiliated to the Islamic State group (ISIS), set off two powerful bomb explosions in the heart of Kampala city leaving a number of people dead and others nursing injuries. 
Clouds of smoke quickly filled the streets of the city. Office workers and residents ran in panic as they tried to outpace the billowing debris clouds. In the aftermath, a number of buildings and other property, including motor vehicles, suffered serious damage. 
These terror attacks were the latest in a string of bombings that have rocked the country in recent weeks. And from the look of things, we could, sadly, just be getting started – the worst could be yet to come! According to Police Spokesperson, Fred Enanga, at least 150 planned attacks had recently been defused, but the terror groups are eager to carry out more attacks.
As new details continue to emerge about these terror threats, I have been tempted to delve into recent history relating to Uganda’s response to similar threats and emergency situations. And this route has led me straight to the country’s fire department, an often-neglected, but a key Police unit, especially in these troubling times.  
While analysing the state of Uganda’s fire department, my memory quickly drew me to the fire that gutted Makerere University’s now 80-year-old iconic main administration building in September last year. The fire destroyed student records, University archives and property worth billions of shillings.
Addressing journalists immediately thereafter, the University Vice Chancellor Prof. Barnabas Nawangwe said that the fire had been seen a few minutes after it started but it couldn’t be stopped. He said: “The first fire trucks failed to put out the fire because they had short hoses that could not spray long distances. By the time fire trucks with cranes and long horses arrived, the fire had already spread to nearly the entire right side of the building”. 
According to eye witnesses, at some point, the fire-fighters helplessly stood and watched as the fire raged on. It was clear that they had done the best they could. Hon. Mathias Mpuuga, now Leader of Opposition in Parliament, described the incident as “the highest level of criminal negligence and absent planning”. 
The Makerere University fire incident should have served as a wake-up call to government and the Uganda Police because it showed how ill-equipped the country was in fighting fires and emergency responses. It, therefore, gives me a serious heartache knowing that not much has since changed in the fire brigade unit even amid today’s looming terror attacks. 

Underfunding and inadequate fire equipment, personnel
Uganda Police’s firefighting and rescue budget for FY2021/22 is estimated to be in the region of Ushs8 billion, or $$2.3 million, but I have doubts whether this will sufficiently cater for the replacement of the currently dilapidated fire equipment (firefighting trucks, fire hydrants, water tankers, etc.), the training or re-training of our rusty firefighters and the creation of basic safety awareness.

With the current state of Uganda’s fire department, if a major terrorist attack occurred, in the worst cases like the U.S 9/11 attacks, I can guarantee that the emergency and rescue system would be overwhelmed almost immediately, resulting into hundreds of causalities. 
The department requires an immediate overhaul, with modernized technology, reworked on-scene protocols, and enhanced training for the firefighters. In the U.S 9/11 attacks, if it wasn’t for the heroic efforts of the New York City Fire Department’s well-trained personnel, thousands of lives that were saved would have otherwise been lost. And as it turned out, about 343 firefighters lost their lives. 
Firefighting in the age of terrorism is a whole new phenomenon. We need modern-day firefighters who are the trained to respond to modern-day disasters. Their expectations and competencies should go beyond fighting house or market fires but to also include hazardous materials response, and handling incidents of domestic terrorism. 

Need for a re-designed Counterterrorism and Risk Management Strategy
The Uganda Police urgently needs a new or revised Counterterrorism and Risk Management Strategy. For the fire department, the key component of this strategy should be inclusion of response considerations. The Department’s terrorism preparedness can minimize the effects of an attack, quicken mitigation and recovery, and better inform firefighters of trends in terrorism. 
The strategy should include intelligence production and consumption, counterterrorism-specific training, technological enhancements and improved network command structures that can better manage complex, large-scale incidents. 
The fire department should work tirelessly to significantly enhance its planning and operational capabilities to better respond to terrorism. It needs to closely study previous incidents, conduct training on multi-agency and single agency responses, and coordinate and collaborate with response objectives and operations.
More active approaches to fire-safety during property construction is also critical. In collaboration with other government agencies, building frames must now include fire protection, and engineers need to conduct computational analysis to model what could happen structurally in a fire rather than relying on defensive fire protections.
I agree that all terrorist attacks cannot be prevented. However, it is important that our fire and emergency agencies promote a culture of preparedness and resilience. But as they do that, we, the public, must also realize that every citizen has a role to play if these heinous attacks are to be prevented. 
Working collaboratively as a nation, I believe we can win this battle and gain the upper hand in bringing these events to an end.

Mr. Mukalazi is the Country Director of Every Child Ministries Uganda.
bmukalazi@ecmafrica.org

OPINION BY:
BRIAN MUKALAZI
bmukalazi@ecmafrica.org

THIS year has marked the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 (Commonly referred to as “9/11”) terrorist attacks that rocked the United States. The four coordinated attacks—committed by al-Qaeda—resulted in the brutal, tragic and untimely deaths of nearly 3,000 people and over 6,000 sustained injuries. 
According to available statistics, the immediate aftermath of the attacks cost the United States at least $10 billion in property damage and about $3 trillion in total costs.
Today, two decades later, the 9/11 attacks still shape the U.S government, society, foreign policy and Counter-terrorism efforts, including the expansion of military activity, law enforcement operations, and intelligence powers. 
But as the U.S continues to reflect, take account and assess its national security and counterterrorism responses—tallying gains against costs—for both pre- and post-9/11 eras, Uganda should perhaps borrow a leaf. 
Like the U.S, Uganda has also had its (un)fair share of terror attacks, with the worst attacks being the 2010 World Cup twin bombings in Kampala, where at least 74 people were killed and 85 others badly injured. And most recently, in a space of only one week, the country has had to contend with three suspected terror attacks. On October 23, terrorists used an explosive device to attack a pork restaurant in Komamboga, a Kampala suburb, killing one person; and on October 25, they used a similar explosive device on a passenger bus travelling on the Kampala-Masaka Highway near Mpigi, killing one person. Then on October 30, a suspected bomb blast in Nakaseke district killed two children. 
Of course, Uganda is not as wealthy or sophisticated as the U.S, but that should not stop it from taking lessons from the Americans, especially those emanating from counterterrorism responses and efforts. By the way, it also goes without saying that, whereas America’s post-9/11 efforts have yielded many important successes, there have been some notable errors to learn from as well.  

In the wake of 9/11, the United States created new institutions, including the Department of Homeland Security, Directorate of National Intelligence, and the National Counterterrorism Centre. It also substantially increased resources for intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
While these institutions have faced several challenges over the years, they have arguably made the U.S more secure if compared to the pre-9/11 times. As a result, no additional major terrorist attacks have taken place within the United States and even most of the smaller attempts have been subverted. 
The effectiveness of these agencies majorly lies in the redefined strategies and approaches used. After 9/11, the U.S focused on disruption, intelligence-gathering, strengthening partnerships, and renewing a sense of shared responsibility. All levels of government removed barriers that had stifled collaboration and prevented information-sharing. 
For Uganda’s part, whereas the suspected terrorist operatives are largely believed to be part of the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a rebel group operating in the jungles of the neighbouring eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), no major efforts have been made to strengthen counterterrorism partnerships with DRC, other regional partners and local communities. 
As a matter of fact, hundreds of people, from DRC and other neighbouring countries, are estimated to illegally enter Uganda every year using porous routes but only few are apprehended. Others buy their way into the country when intercepted by border security operatives. 
To avert the eminent threat created by these illegal border crossings, collaboration will be essential for Uganda. This means strengthened law enforcement partnerships with state and local partners, whose front-line observations have proved key for the U.S. The government also needs the backing of the Ugandan people to answer the call to tackle these new terrorism threats.
After 9/11, the U.S. enhanced its capacities to track and shut down terror finance networks, and it adapted approaches aimed to thwart terror threats and operatives in the face of technological advancements, including internet and social media. Similarly, Uganda’s law enforcement and counterterrorism agencies must redefine their approaches and acknowledge that unlike in the past where terrorist attacks required extensive physical communication, which took time and created leads for investigators to pursue, today, terrorism moves at the speed of internet and social media. 
With technological advancements, terrorists have become more sophisticated and harder to track. For instance, in one of the retrieved emails shared by the attackers while plotting the 9/11 attacks, one of them disguised as if he was writing to his girlfriend and is quoted saying: “The first semester commences in three weeks…Nineteen certificates for private education and four exams”. 
The referenced 19 “certificates” were codes meant to identify the 19 al-Qaeda hijackers, while the four “exams” identified the targets of the attacks.
In the eyes of some experts, the U.S ‘war on terror’ has also resulted in a variety of miscalculations, often focusing on wrong targets. Therefore, Uganda’s security agencies must focus on doing thorough intelligence work of assessing emerging threats and interrupting them in the planning cycle and be careful not to be carried into interventions attuned to solving political grievances. 
There’s need to avoid situations of under/over-reactions while dealing with terror threats. After under-reacting before 9/11, the U.S overreacted in many ways in the aftermath. For instance, Peter Bergen writes in his book, The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden, that: “There were only 16 people on the U.S. ‘no-fly’ list on 9/11. Around the time that bin Laden died [in 2011], there were more than 40,000”. 
For Uganda and its East African counterparts, counterterrorism tactics and operations have, in the past, led to a string of hurried actions and exaggerated fears often ending into human rights violations including allegations of arbitrary detention, physical abuse, and denial of due process rights.
By any measure, fighting terrorism is a tricky business and stopping the next attack should always be the priority for any country. Terrorism is not a disease that can be eradicated through vaccination, but its likelihood may be minimized if we develop innovative counterterrorism strategies centred on collaboration with both state and local actors.  

The writer, Mr. Mukalazi is the Country Director ofEvery Child Ministries Uganda.bmukalazi@ecmafrica.org