In the days before Assistant Prosecutor Joan Kagezi was killed in a drive-by shooting in Kampala on March 30, there was a heightened and visible security presence at strategic spots in the city.

This deployment was based on a security alert issued by the United States that warned about possible terror attacks targeting Western citizens.

Although Ms Kagezi’s murder on Monday is still an open investigation, Police Chief Major General Kale Kayihura has not ruled out a connection with terrorism.

While officials are reluctant to discuss the terror link further, unverified reports trickling in suggest that security organs could have misinterpreted information in their possession.

Usually reliable sources say the US alert was based on fragments of intercepted communication which had the words “woman, Kampala, move.”

According to these sources, security interpreted this to mean that a female suicide bomber had been infiltrated into Kampala.

“The officers deployed to guard different points in the city were briefed to be on the lookout for suicide bombers who could include females,” our source says.

Following the tragic shooting on Monday, the debate within security circles is whether the intercepted communication could have been connected to the plot to slay Ms Kagezi, who was the chief prosecutor in an ongoing trial of suspects in the July 2010 bombing in Kampala that left 76 dead.

READ: Uganda bombing trial stalls after top prosecutor assassinated

The trial, which was due to begin on March 31, was temporarily suspended but with Kagezi taking a lead role in several other cases involving big ticket fraud by public officials, it will be a long wait before any concrete facts emerge.

The US mission in Kampala said they could not say more than what was contained in the alert nor comment on whether there was any connection between the alert and the killing of Ms Kagezi.