Twin bombings which killed more than 70 people watching the World Cup final on Sunday came after al Shabaab insurgents threatened to take action against Uganda for contributing troops to the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
As al Shabaab threatened further violence against Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni said he would push for African Union troops in Somalia to be permitted to take on the Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents and prevent them from carrying out more attacks in the region.
Uganda and Burundi together contribute about 6,000 troops to the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia. It regularly trades fire with insurgents in the capital Mogadishu, but is not mandated to go on the offensive against them.
Museveni also said Uganda would tighten its internal security to keep out foreigners intent on further attacks.
"We are now going to go on the offensive and get these people. We were in Mogadishu on the African Union mission to guard the port, airport and state house," the Ugandan president told a news conference late on Wednesday.
"But now they have mobilized us to look for them. In the past we were not involved in Somali affairs, now we are taking a big interest in these groups."
Asked if that approach would require a change of mandate for the force, Museveni said, "It will have to be peace enforcement to bring a solution to Somalia."
Two bombs went off in a crowded restaurant and a rugby club in the Ugandan capital on Sunday as fans watched the final match of this year's world cup.
Al-Shabab's leader, Sheikh Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, said the group would carry out more attacks in Uganda.
"Attacks in Kampala were preliminary. We shall do more as AMISOM (the peacekeeping force) continue massacring our people. I would like to tell people of Mogadishu that Al-Shabab mujahideen will take revenge on your enemy AMISOM and do the same thing they do to you," he said in an audio tape issued on Wednesday.
Museveni said regional powers would not be deterred from their aim of sending 2,000 more troops to Somalia in the short run before eventually raising the force to 20,000.
"Therefore this force ... will be expanded and the African Union will be able to clean up this place," he said.
