Katikamu SDA Secondary School closed over riot
Mar 24, 2009
KATIKAMU SDA Secondary School in Luweero district was on Sunday indefinitely closed following a two-day riot, in which the students destroyed property, looted the school canteen and refused to school meals.<br>
By Frederick Kiwanuka and Esther Nannyonga
KATIKAMU SDA Secondary School in Luweero district was on Sunday indefinitely closed following a two-day riot, in which the students destroyed property, looted the school canteen and refused to school meals.
The over 2,000 students of Luweero’s most populous mixed boarding school were ordered to go home at around 11:00am yesterday, a day after they went on rampage, over numerous grievances.
The students accused the school administration of delaying to register candidates, charging exorbitant fees and failing to explain a recent impromptu removal of the headmaster, Samuel Kyewalyanga.
The school is run by the Seventh Day Adventist Foundation.
Police officers from Luweero and Wobulenzi stations were on Sunday night deployed at the school, after the rioting students broke furniture and window panes, ransacked the school canteen and refused to eat school meals.
Several students sustained injuries, while others fainted, in a stampede, as the Police fired into the air to deter the rioters from causing further destruction.
The rioting students retaliated by pelting the Police with stones.
“Mr. Kyewalyanga has spent three weeks without opening his office. He goes away early every morning and returns late in the evening. We do not have a headmaster,†said a student who preferred to be anonymous.
The Luweero criminal investigations directorate chief, Abuneri Oweka, who was at the scene said the whole saga started when Kyewalyanga was abruptly replaced by one of his deputies, Joseph Nyangoma, without explanation from the school management.
KATIKAMU SDA Secondary School in Luweero district was on Sunday indefinitely closed following a two-day riot, in which the students destroyed property, looted the school canteen and refused to school meals.
The over 2,000 students of Luweero’s most populous mixed boarding school were ordered to go home at around 11:00am yesterday, a day after they went on rampage, over numerous grievances.
The students accused the school administration of delaying to register candidates, charging exorbitant fees and failing to explain a recent impromptu removal of the headmaster, Samuel Kyewalyanga.
The school is run by the Seventh Day Adventist Foundation.
Police officers from Luweero and Wobulenzi stations were on Sunday night deployed at the school, after the rioting students broke furniture and window panes, ransacked the school canteen and refused to eat school meals.
Several students sustained injuries, while others fainted, in a stampede, as the Police fired into the air to deter the rioters from causing further destruction.
The rioting students retaliated by pelting the Police with stones.
“Mr. Kyewalyanga has spent three weeks without opening his office. He goes away early every morning and returns late in the evening. We do not have a headmaster,†said a student who preferred to be anonymous.
The Luweero criminal investigations directorate chief, Abuneri Oweka, who was at the scene said the whole saga started when Kyewalyanga was abruptly replaced by one of his deputies, Joseph Nyangoma, without explanation from the school management.