Govt money to Rubirizi fire victims opens fresh wounds

Government’s decision to compensate victims of the Rubirizi inferno has triggered claims for reparation from survivors of the 2001 Busesa fire.
Last month, a fuel tanker lost control after failing to negotiate a corner and knocked several vehicles in Kyambura Village, Rubirizi District.
The accident immediately sparked a fire that spread to nearby shops and residential houses.
Police confirmed that at least 20 people died.
President Museveni later announced that government would give Shs5m to each family that lost their loved ones, while survivors would each receive Shs1m.
Those whose shops and household items were destroyed, Mr Museveni said, would also be helped, a gesture that has triggered sentiments from survivors of another accident about 500 kilometres apart.
On December 6, 2001, at least 60 people died and 79 others were critically injured following an accident involving a fuel tanker at Busesa Village, Busesa Town Council in Bugweri District.
The Kenyan-registered fuel-tanker, which was heading to Kampala, according to eyewitnesses lost control and overturned after one of its tyres burst.
Within a short time, thick black smoke engulfed the entire village.
Scores of villagers, some of whom had arrived at the scene with containers to scoop the spilled fuel, were consumed in the ensuing inferno.
Although up to 100 people were initially feared to have been killed, at least 60, including passengers of a minibus whose driver reportedly attempted to drive through the flames, died, according to police and local media reports.
Now, residents, including survivors, widows and orphans are demanding compensation close to two decades later, saying it is ‘well-deserved’.
The only aid they claim to have received was last lobbied for and received by their area Member of Parliament, Mr Abdu Katuntu in 2002.
Mr Katuntu was that year quoted by local media as saying: “I have already received assistance from some companies, while others are yet to honour their pledges.”
During a meeting for residents, including survivors, widows and orphans at the mass grave in Busesa in which most of the unidentified victims were buried on Monday, Ms Fatima Nampima, a survivor who lost five siblings, said she is in dire need of help.
“One of my brothers left his wife pregnant, we have always been asked to record our names but nothing has been forthcoming to-date,” she said.
Ms Annet Wanalubanga, a resident of Busesa-Namadi, said she lost all her close family members in the disaster.
Ms Proscovia Naigaga, another resident, said she lost a son identified as Ronald Wakabi.
“There is nothing we have received yet we hear of those [victims] as recent as the Rubirizi [incident] being compensated. We in Bugweri are now asking: ‘Are we not also President Museveni’s children?” she wondered.
She said after the incident, different people came to the district immediately after the mass burial, seeking details of the fire victims, which they provided but nothing has been done and that they have never heard from government again.
Efforts to get a comment from the Bugweri Resident District Commissioner, Ms Eva Kwesiga, were futile by press time.