16.Apr.2008

                
                      Budo Junior School fire claims 19

President Yoweri Museveni has visited the Budo Junior School that was set ablaze two days back under unclear circumstances leaving 19 dead. The President was accompanied by the Inspector General of Police, Major General Kale Kayihura, and the Minister in Charge of Education, Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire.

The blaze was Uganda's third fire in two years. Last July, a school in Jinja was gutted by fire killing six and another in March last year in western Uganda that left 13 dead. The doors to the dormitories of Budo Junior School that were once classrooms were locked from outside at the time of the fire. Over 50 children were in the dormitory when the fire broke out but some managed to escape through the windows.

Museveni said Government will pay for the survivors medical care and DNA tests to help the parents identify the bodies of their children.