A wax candle left burning by a housewife of Kitaka zone in Busega, Kyengera Town Council who had gone to buy some household requirements, accidentally set ablaze a house killing three children aged between three and ten years.
According to neighbours, the housewife identified as Maureen Mbabazi, wife of Ernest Kato Mugerwa, an accountant, locked the house from outside as she went to the shops, leaving a lit candle by the side of a refrigerator and a foam mattress.
It is suspected that the candle lit the mattress which in turn set the fridge on fire. In the process, the fridge compressor, overwhelmed by the heat, burst and extended the fire to other household property. This was late in the night as it approached midnight.
Akozesezza Tik Talk Okuvuma Eyali Minisita Kibuule Poliisi Emukutte
The eldest of the children called Lukwago Alvin woke up, raised an alarm as he awoke up their dad who was also asleep. Together they rushed to the bedroom that had not been engulfed by smoke, as they could not open the door.
The neighbours broke the window glasses and made a hole in the wall to let smoke out, and used it to pour water at the fire base. The children were found lying unconscious and were rushed to a nearby clinic where the eldest Daniella Nalukwago died on arrival.
The other two, Darius Lukwago aged 6 years and Moses Muwanguzi aged 3 years, were bundled on a police patrol van and rushed to Mulago hospital, where doctors declared them dead on arrival.
Emboozi ya Ssaalongo John, Eyali Omusomi W’ebirango ku Leediyo Uganda ne CBS
In a dramatic turn of events, the mother of the deceased children amazed family members when she told them to leave the body of the youngest child in the mortuary, and declared that she had produced him with another man and not Mugerwa her husband.
Mugerwa’s relatives were heard suggesting that they take even the other two bodies for a DNA test to avoid burying in their home bodies of children who could have been fathered by a different man.
Police were compelled to take the body of the eldest child to Mulago pending resolution of the matter.
The dead children’s grandmother Nalongo Elizabeth Lukwago sadly lamented that she has always been asking her son’s wife to take the last child for baptism but that the mother declined without giving a reason.
And their grandfather Ssaalongo Jackson Lukwago had this to say: “I have double pain, losing my grandchildren and now this latest development, but I am pleading with the Lord to give them eternal peace.”
The area MP Aloysius Mukasa who was found at the bereaved family’s home, appealed to the government to procure firefighting equipment to be dispatched within the communities, and to provide police stations with such equipment so that people do not have to always wait for help from the fire headquarters.
The Assistant Police spokesman for Kampala Metropolitan, Luke Owoyesigire confirmed the death of the children and that police investigations are underway. By press time, the bodies were still in Mulago City Mortuary.
ENDS…