One student confirmed dead in Jinja school fire

Jinja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Kiira region police have confirmed the death of 13-year-old Emmanuel Muwumba, a senior one student at St. Joseph Senior Secondary School in Nakonyonyi, Jinja City Northern division who died in the fire that gutted the school on Tuesday night.

Eight other students collapsed following the loss of their property and were rushed to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital for further management. It is reported that the fire broke out in the boys dormitories at around 7:00pm. Officers from the Police Fire and Rescue Services teamed up with well-wishers to contain the fire from spreading to other areas.

After containing the fire at around 9:00pm, the school management conducted roll calls to ascertain the safety of all learners. However, Muwumba was missing. This prompted police officers to inspect the dormitories where they found Muwumba’s lifeless body buried under iron sheets in the ruins of the dormitory.

Police took the body to the mortuary of Jinja Regional Referral Hospital awaiting postmortem. One of the students who spoke on condition of anonymity complained about congestion in the dormitory which leaves no room for escape in case of emergency. “The building is very old with 26 beds tightly packed within each of the small rooms, which risks the safety of learners during fire outbreaks and other related disasters,” he said.

The school director Moses Kisubi declined to comment about the matter, arguing that police were still investigating the matter, saying that releasing information at this stage would undermine the outcome of the investigations. Kiira Regional police spokesperson James Mubi says that a team of detectives is still investigating to establish the cause of the fire.

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