President Yoweri Museveni has ordered
security agencies to re-introduce military
training for Ugandan civilians to counter the
threat from al-Shabab.
Writing in the state-owned New Vision
newspaper , Mr Museveni said that
although al-Shabab was "defeated",
Ugandans need to guard against attacks.
Uganda has more than 6,000 troops in
Somalia as part of an African Union force
battling the Islamist militants.
In 2010, al-Shabab bomb attacks in
Kampala killed at least 76 people.
In his open letter, President Museveni
focuses on al-Shabab, calling them
"idiots".
But the threat of attack from the Islamist
militants is not the only source of
insecurity for Ugandans. As the Ugandan
army spokesman told the BBC, al-Shabab
are not the only targets of this policy.
In the past few months, security has
become a bigger concern than usual in
Uganda.
In December, two Muslim clerics were
shot dead in the capital Kampala, and in
March, the top state prosecutor, who was
investigating the 2010 al-Shabab attack,
was shot and killed on her way home from
work.
It is still unclear who is responsible for the
killings and whether they are linked.
It is also far from certain that military
education for civilians would help keep
Uganda safe.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Ugandan school
leavers used to perform two years of
national service before attending
university.
President Museveni said he had already
given instructions to the relevant security
agencies to launch the programme,
focusing initially on the most vulnerable
areas in the country.
He did not give many details about the
scheme, but Ugandan army spokesman Lt
Col Paddy Ankunda said that there were
no plans to arm the civilian population.
