Boy, 2, drowns as rain pounds Kampala
Motorists wade through a flooded section of the road in Kampala following a heavy downpour on March 14, 2023. PHOTO/ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Majority of vehicles on sale that were parked by the roadside outside the car bonds along Jinja Road were also submerged in the floods and operators of small food joints were forced to relocate their businesses to unknown destinations.
- Downpour started at around 7am and lasted over seven hours in Kampala and some of its surrounding areas.
A two-year-old boy whose mother reportedly left Uganda for greener pastures drowned in a trench as rain pounded Kampala and its neighboring parts for several hours on Tuesday, police have said.
Bostiline Ainebyoona, a resident of Bulabera, Najjera had been left under the care of two people who police identified as Charles Makumbi and Clare Asiimwe.
“Ainebyoona drowned during the rain. The child's mother is working abroad. The caretaker, Asiimwe alleges that the deceased was playing with other children inside the house and she was washing clothes inside the house. She doesn't know how the deceased sneaked outside and yet just at the doorsteps there is a trench, and it was flooded,” said the deputy Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson, Luke Owoyesigyire.
According to ASP Owoyesigyire, the downpour also disrupted traffic flow within Kampala Metropolitan as sections of some roads were flooded.
Motorists and other road users in the flood-prone Banda- Kyambogo along the Jinja-Kampala Highway were stuck for the better part of the morning as water cut off the roads.
When this publication visited the scene at around 10am, many motorists with low undercarriage vehicles remained stranded pondering whether to dare and wade through the flooded area, or simply turn away to alternative routes.
Majority of vehicles on sale that were parked by the roadside outside the car bonds along Jinja Road were also submerged in the floods and operators of small food joints were forced to relocate their businesses to unknown destinations.
SEE PICTORIAL: Kampala floods through the lens
Another floodplain, Bata Bata in Zzana, along Entebbe Road was also submerged, paralyzing traffic for hours.
“Properties worth millions of Sshillings were destroyed due to water that entered people's shops, houses and offices,” ASP Owoyesgyired added in a Tuesday evening statement.
