Terrorism As A Potential Threat To States:The Case Of Uganda

In the night of July 11th 2010,terrorists attacked Uganda and killed more than 74 people who had gathered at three different places watching 2010 FIFA World Cup finals.The attack left several others with permanent and serious injuries.A few hours after this terror attack,Al Shabaab,a foreign terror group based in Somalia claimed responsibility of the attack stressing that they had attacked Uganda as an act of revenge.Al Shabaab claimed that Uganda's action of sending soldiers in Somalia to fight them was unacceptable and demanded that Uganda withdraws theses soldiers from Somalia threatening that if not,they would continue attacking Uganda.Prior to this attack,Uganda had also suffered several other terror attacks of which most of these were carried by insurgent groups operating within Uganda's territory and some of these insurgent groups like Allied Democratic Forces(ADF)and Lord's Resistance Army(LRA)were later listed as terrorists' groups by Ugandan government and United States of America's State Department.To date,despite having been weakened as a result of sustained government's war on terror,these terror groups still plan and conduct terror attacks in the region and in Uganda including for example terror attacks in which Uganda's State Prosecutor was assassinated,targeted and killed Deputy Inspector general of Police,and religious leaders making it a reality that terrorism is still a major threat to Uganda.Other than the July 2010 Al shabaab terror attacks on Kampala which to date are Uganda's worst terror attack,Al shabaab still poses a threat to the government of Uganda and Ugandan security agencies have on many occasions foiled their planned attacks within the country.Ugandan security and intelligence networks also contend that foreign terror groups such as Al Qaeda and Al shabaab through local terror groups or contacts still have terror cells within the country-Uganda.It is against this background that Uganda declared the war on terrorism which is still ongoing.With the threat terrorism is posing to Uganda,Ugandan officials especially after Kampala terror attacks announced several measures that the country would go through to counter terrorism.Though some of these measures such as Anti-Terrorism Act,Interception of Communications act among others were criticised as unproportional or extraordinary with some scholars and activists claiming that they violated civil liberties,some of these measures were later passed into acts of parliament and to date,they are used in fighting terrorism.Using Securitization Theory,this study therefore examined and investigated effectiveness of measures Uganda government suggested to counter terrorism after Kampala terror attacks,and also examined who were the actors or those who suggested the measures to counter terrorism.Further,the author integrated Securitization Theory with Framing Theory and investigated what are the causes of terrorism in Uganda,who are the actors,delved challenges Uganda is facing in fighting terrorism and effects the country has endured as a result of terrorism.During this study,the author used literature published in scientific journals,and books in field of International Relations and Politics for literature review while investigating and compiling this study.The author also used secondary literature published in Uganda especially those published in Ugandan media about the challenge of terrorism.All the said data after being collected was analysed using content and discourse analysis and hence,great insight was achieved in regard to the topic this study investigated.After analysing all literature and findings,this study observed that though there is still more to be done,to a greater extent Uganda has registered success in the battle against terrorism.From its national anti-terrorism polices,the study observed that Uganda also fully complied with United Nations Security Council Resolution number 1317(2001)which requires all UN member countries to devise means of fighting terrorism by blocking funding of terror organizations,denying them opportunity to operate within their countries of jurisdiction among others.Indeed,Uganda passed legislations such as anti-terrorism act,Anti-Money Laundering Act(AMLA),and Interception of Communications Act among others which all are in place to ensure terrorism is not given chance to tihrive.Other than the positive strides Uganda is taking in countering terrorism,the study observed that sometimes Ugandan government politicise the war on terrorism by targeting those they don't agree with ideologically especially opposition politicians.Some critics call this securitization and claim it infringes on fundamental liberties and derail efforts meant to fight terrorism since sometime government tend to divert from the real challenge and focus on opposition politicians a weakness that can be exploited terrorists to hurt Uganda's interests.The study concluded and observed that terrorism is a real or potential threat to Uganda and that Uganda as a country must devise all means possible to defeat it considering the far negative effects terrorism causes especially killing of innocent people.That notwithstanding,the study observed that to a greater extent,Uganda as a State,the measures it has taken to counter and defeat terrorism have to a greater extent been successful!...