Teacher held over death of student in Kaliro

Police in Kaliro are holding a 38-year-old school teacher said to have caused the death a Senior Two student of Namugongo Seed Secondary School.

He reportedly was waking students up for early morning jogging in a school dormitory.

One student who asked not to be named claimed he saw what happened: Teacher Kenneth Waako walked up to the double-decker bed where Zebrata Sajja was still fast-asleep. He then hit the student hard with a cane, startling the lad out of his sleep. The 15-year-old then reportedly rolled off his bed and slammed onto the floor to his death.

This happened around 5.30am local time.

It is understood that students at the school, located in Namugongo sub-county, routinely do early morning jogging sessions.

Another student said that moments to the Wednesday morning deadly incident, students were scrambling out of their beds upon hearing the teacher's cane hit their beds to wake up.

He said that during the stampede out of the dormitory, some students inadvertently trampled onto their lifeless colleague's body.

Busoga North police spokesperson Michael Kasadha said investigations into the matter are under way. "We are holding the teacher because he is the prime suspect in this case," he said.

It is the first such incident in the district this year, he added.

Edward Kaamaga, the district inspector of schools of Kaliro, only stopped at confirming the incident.