Two year’s ago I survived the Kyandondo rugby ground World Cup 2010 twin bomb blasts that shook Kampala,but being a survivor comes with alot of bad memories at the same time lots of stereotypes.
On the night of the attacks that saw Kyandondo,Ethiopian village Kabalagala and Makindye House being struck me together with a couple of friends in the media survived the gruesome attack deep into the game between Spain and Holland.
Initially I wanted to sit at the spot where the first and the second blast together with my friend Albert Ahabwe,but my instinct made me change my plan and watch the game from the extreme end of the rugby ground with TV journalist Andrew Kabuura as did a live radio update and also take some drinks.
The first blast went off, but we took it lightly thinking it was a transformer that had blown,but the second one was so intense and loud that made us scamper to the ground with the people wailing,scream and running all over the place I decided to run out the venue.
The scenes in the front row where breathtaking and bloody with body parts,blood,broken beer bottles,smoke, scattered chairs all over the place it was the worst scene I have seen in my year’s in journalism even surviving the 1998 World Cup bomb blast at Slow Boat.
My life experiences in such situations have brought me face to face with stereotypes in this country first me looking like a foreign has put me in the spotlight with security and the police calling me a Somali or and Arab and associating me to the notorious Somali radical terrorist group Al Shabaab, that is allegedly responsibile for the fateful day July 11 2010 in Uganda.
One wonders whether everybody goes through such situations when such incidents like this happen?Rest in Peace those who died on the fateful night of July 11 at Kyandondo,Ethiopian Village and Makindye House and wish all those that sustained injuries and shock quick recovery.