Boy trapped in car,survives drowning

By Juliet Lukwago

A five-year old boy Saturday evening narrowly escaped drowning when the car he found himself trapped in rolled into the Uganda Martyrs Lake in Namugongo, a few kilometers out of Kampala.

Kevin Kakooza was caught in this claustrophobic situation when he and his mother visited his elder sister at Namugongo Girls Primary School. At the school, the unsettled boy ran off back to the family car as his mother talked to his sister, witnesses say.

Kakooza, a pupil of Victorious Nursery School in Rubaga Division, started to fidget with the gear lever, a mishap that forced the small car to ease in reverse and overturn into the shallow waters of the man-made lake.  

                     Kakooza regained his composure after the incident. PHOTO by Juliet Lukwago

An alarm call immediately caught the attention of the people around. Rescuers said the vehicle submerged into the water, with barely its body out of the water – only the tyres were fully visible.

The boy was pulled out of the vehicle, cold, wet, and shaken from the brief incident. One of the rescuers said they found Kakooza trying to free himself out of the window-shut car.

Gilbert Agobia, a commercial photographer at the scene was part of the rescue crew. He said he violently shook the vehicle for about ten minutes until the boot eventually opened.  He then reached out for the shocked boy and pulled him out of the stuck car. 

"I realized I had left my mother outside the car," he sobbed, upon setting foot on dry ground.

Other visiting parents at the school watched in shock as Kakooza was being rescued from the waters.

Out of the water, the boy got reunited with his visibly awed mother and sister. His father, Eddie Ssemanda, arrived at the school a little later after being alerted on phone.

“God is great all the time,” Ssemanda said, filled with joy.

              The car being hauled out of the water as people look on. PHOTO by Juliet Lukwago

In a brief interview with New Vision, he intimated how he thought he was being called on phone to collect his son’s body upon breaking the news to him.

"I honestly did not think my son would still be alive. I knew that if he was still alive, every second would count." 

An official at the Uganda Martyrs shrine, who preferred anonymity, described the incident as regrettable, saying that they had never experienced anything like what had occurred before.

He cautioned parents to be mindful of the children they travel with, not only at the shrine, but also everywhere.