Reports Leo Odera Omolo
TWENTY-EIGHT people are feared dead after their boat capsized in Lake Victoria yesterday morning. The mishap occurred about 15 kilometres away from Jaana, an Island where the water vessel had last docked.
Jaana, one of the 84 landmasses that make up Ssese Islands, is located between Koome and Bubeke Islands in Kalangala district.
According to the Jaana-Kiku local council boss, Nelson Musisi, the boat capsized at about 5:30pm as it headed for Kasenyi landing site near Entebbe in Wakiso district.
Loaded on the boat were timber, fish, soda and beer.
A survivor, Samalie Teru, said moments after set-off, the boat developed a crack at the back and water started gushing in.
“As the occupants struggled to drain the water, a wave hit the boat and it capsized,” LC boss Musisi quoted the survivor as saying.
“The water swallowed the people, many of whom had no life-jackets,” he added.
Four people survived by holding onto pieces of the boat and other items that were floating. By press time, the search for survivors and the dead was ongoing. Most of the dead were Jaana residents. Huge crowds last evening camped at Kasenyi awaiting information about the victims.
By 4:00pm, the body of Jett Nakabadde had been recovered. Nakabadde was a wife of Segugu of Jaana.
Entebbe Police Station crime boss Frederick Wataya identified the survivors as Samalie Teru, a resident of Abayita Ababiri on Entebbe Road, Gideon Kazungu, David Mugole and Richard Jachan.
Teru, a businesswoman, said she held onto a floating object until she was saved.
Richard Mato, the owner of the boat, is believed to be dead. His mother, Joyce Ndagire, from Kawempe, a Kampala suburb, wailed as his wife, Perus Nakachwa, comforted her.
The period between May and July is prone to such incidents, a retired soldier Mawanda Lukanga, noted, adding that lakes get turbulent owing to rough winds.
Mawanda was worried that his brother, Eddie Nsubuga, was among the dead.
Police deputy spokesperson Vincent Ssekatte, who said the death toll was 15, announced that the search team was still busy looking for the bodies.
Addressing journalists at Parliament, legislator Moses Kabuusu yesterday put the death toll at 28, adding that the boat was carrying 30 people.
He appealed to the Government for a ferry to avert accidents in future.
“This is not the first time that such an incident has happened on Lake Victoria. The Government should stop the tragedies,” Kabuusu, the Kyamuswa county MP, stated.
In February 2008, some 30 people died when their canoe collided with another vessel at the border of Mukono and Mayuge districts.
Ends