How pupils foiled arson attack on government school dormitory  

Later, police detectives recovered a one-and-a-half capacity plastic container with about half a liter of petrol, which they believe was going to be used by the attacker.

Sirafi Judumi, one of the pupils, said the attacker first removed all the security light bulbs before accessing the boys’ dormitory where he doused the entire room with petrol.

“One of our colleagues saw the man come and remove all the security bulbs and when he entered the dormitory, he switched off the lights and started sprinkling the petrol,” Judumi said on June 25.

The pupil further narrated that the smell of petrol aroused suspicion, prompting the pupil to raise an alarm that woke up the rest of the pupils. In the ensuing confusion, pupils scampered for safety through windows as the door had already been locked from outside by the assailant.

“As we jumped out of the dormitory, we saw the man run and jump over the school fence heading towards Kisenyi village,” Judumi further narrated.

Busia Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mr Michael Kibwika, confirmed the attempted arson attack on the dormitory of Madibira Primary School.

He said: “It is true that some unknown person had doused the whole boys’ dormitory at Madibira Primary School with petrol, but his plans were foiled by the pupils.”

Mr Kibwika, who led the Busia District security team, which also had Didas Byaruhanga, the District Police Commander to the school said the pupils ran to the house of one of the teachers and reported the attempted attack because the security guards were not accessible.

During a brief security meeting, the RDC quizzed the headmaster, Siraji Polly Majibo, while accusing him of “failing to report the matter on time”.

“This attack occurred at about 3am on Sunday, but up to past midday on Monday, the headmaster and his staff had not reported this very serious matter to the police,” Mr Kibwika wondered.

He said if a report was immediately made, police would have deployed a sniffer dog to help in tracking and causing a possible arrest of the assailant, but why the headmaster kept quiet raises suspicion.

According to Mr Kibwika, whereas Madibira is a government school, the headmaster was operating an illegal boarding section which has never been approved by the Ministry of Education and Sports and asked the headmaster to explain why he faulted its directives.

Mr Majibo, however, said the only pupils in the boarding section were those from distant districts and numbered 147.

Mr Kibwika also faulted the Municipal Education Officer, Mr Aggrey Munyororo, for allegedly failing to implement the Ministry of Education and Sports on closing all illegal boarding schools in the town.

Mr Munyororo, however, said through the town clerk, he had written to all schools operating boarding sections in March 2024, ordering them to close until they are licensed but many had not taken the matter seriously.

The arson attempt on Madibira Primary School comes barely three months after three schools in the district were gutted by fire in separate incidents.

Four pupils at Victory Nursery and Primary School died after the boys’ dormitory was gutted by fire in March 2024, and hardly a week later, fire again gutted Bill and Polly Nursery and Primary School in Busia town and a dormitory at Sibirisye Primary School in Lumino town a day later.

Following the incidents, a team from the Education Standards Agency (ESA) visited various schools in Busia District and established that some had no facilities, while others were illegally operating boarding sections.

The team ordered for the immediate closure of all illegal boarding sections, saying most of the rooms did not comply with safety measures.

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