Four family members die as boat capsizes on L. Kyoga

According to preliminary investigations, the canoe which was carrying eight members of the same family capsized in the middle of the lake. This was due to bad weather and poor condition of the boat. Four people died while the rest were rescued by the fishermen.
The Pallisa District Police commander, Mr. Denis Ochama told Daily Monitor that the dead have been identified as Catherine Kateme, Grace Keneya, Rebecca Nandila and Zaituna Nambeya Nabutono, all residents of Agule village, Apopong sub-county in Pallisa District. The four survivors are currently undergoing treatment at Pallisa Hospital.

However, Police also attributed the accident to overloading. “The boat was too small to carry all these eight people and this engineered the boat to capsize because it could not resist the strong winds and the bad weather. This was quite an unfortunate and regrettable accident,” Mr. Ochama said.

The mood at Kabuyi landing site was sombre as many people broke down after hearing the sad news about the deaths.
Mr Emokol Onyango, the Pallisa Deputy Resident District Commissioner appealed to residents to always adhere to the prevailing weather conditions to avoid such tragedies.

“It was unfortunate that people, mostly family heads have lost lives under such circumstances. They could have avoided this accident because there had been signs of unpredictable bad weather,” Mr Onyango said.

He also cautioned the fishing community and those intending to travel by boat against moving and fishing during heavy rains, noting that the storm has become a death trap for the travelers and fishermen on the lake.