Forensic experts secure the scene of an attempted assassination on Ugandan minister of works and transport General Katumba Wamala

Ugandan Minister Katumba Wamala has said “things could have been worse” while speaking about Monday’s assassination attempt.

He said the officer escorting him shot back at the attackers and managed to evacuate him from the scene.

General Wamala thanked a motorcycle taxi operator who took him to the hospital.

He said one of the bullets was removed during an operation but there was one still in his body pending doctors’ advice.

The former army commander eulogised his daughter and driver:

The minister says he prays that those behind the attack will be brought to book.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has vowed to defeat the criminals who shot and wounded General Wamala.

The attack on the current government minister of works and transport, who has also headed Uganda’s police force, is not the first high-profile shooting.

In recent years victims have included a magistrate, Muslim clerics, a politician and an ardent supporter of President Museveni and a senior police chief. None of the murders has ever been successfully investigated or prosecuted.