One year on: Budo's wound are still gaping

Apr 14, 2009

GRAVE silence hangs around the fenced-off, cracked and collapsing building. It is a ‘no-go area’ at this campus. The sound of the chirping birds on the trees is mournful. To the mind that saw and heard about the April 14, 2008, tragedy that saw 20 chi

By Conan Businge

GRAVE silence hangs around the fenced-off, cracked and collapsing building. It is a ‘no-go area’ at this campus. The sound of the chirping birds on the trees is mournful. To the mind that saw and heard about the April 14, 2008, tragedy that saw 20 children die in an inferno, it is hard to forget what lies behind these iron sheets.

The weather is cruel, almost like the day a fire gutted a dormitory in this school, Budo Junior, on Kabinja hill. Today, the abandoned dormitory block, with its collapsing walls and caved-in roof, stands isolated in the flourishing clean and neat compound. It is somewhat excluded, slightly ahead of two blocks that were once classrooms but have now been turned into dormitories.

Yet, Budo Junior is slowly getting a new face. The buildings look fresh, save for this horrific building. They have been re-roofed with new toney-red iron sheets and white painted walls. Although with triple-decker beds, the dormitories are spacious. Children’s giggles as they break for lunch, could make you want to believe that nothing dreadful ever happened here.

Recalling the incident

The fire, whose source has not been established to-date, gutted a dormitory, housing mostly nine and eight-year-olds.

The asbestos roofing caved in while the unsuspecting children were asleep, making it hard for some of them to flee to safety. There was only one entrance to this congested dormitory with burglar-proof windows and the matron was about 50 metres away.
It took several minutes before the adults could come to the girls’ rescue. How else would one of the girls have run in and out of the dormitory several times, to save her friends?

Within no time, 20 children were burnt to ashes. The 20th died on her way to the hospital. That night, panic, wails, anger and confusion reigned at the campus. It is rare for an African man to wail. But that day, men, and children alike wailed. Even some pressmen shouldered their cameras and wept.

Emotions ran high when parents rushed to school to pick their children, only to find that they, too, were part of those that had fallen victim to the inferno.

Basins, bedding, metallic trunks, sandals and shoes were strewn out and about. Some parents just went numb as they grieved, while others punched the air.
That day was windy and hot. An old man who was standing behind me whispered: “Winds are rising to take the innocent souls of these little helpless children.” It was easy to believe him — indeed these were innocent souls.

What caused the fire?

The most disturbing thing to date is that no one knows what caused the fire. According to the Police, investigations are still going on.
The dormitory was packed with triple-decker beds, with hardly any space between them. That night, there was reportedly a temporary power disconnection stretching from the teachers’ quarters to the dormitory.

Part of the investigations by Police pinned former headmaster William Kayongo, the matron and guards for being negligent. They were arrested and are being prosecuted in the courts of law. Kayongo was accused of failing administratively.

The headteacher politics

The school, in the past year, has had four headteachers. The current headteacher, Ernest Kavulu, was once a teacher at the school.
Before him, in that order; the school was headed by the late George Ssebina Kagwa, William Kayongo, Tom Kasule and Dr. Livingstone Ddungu.
The current commissioner for primary education in the education ministry, Dr. Dan Nkaada, was at one time posted to the school, but he refused to serve it for unclear reasons.

Speculation is rife that there seems to be a battle for power at Budo Junior. The chairman of the management committee, Can. Daudi Sserubide, when contacted, said: “I cannot comment on such an issue. Ask someone else.” He hung up and declined to pick the subsequent calls. Efforts to get a comment from Namirembe Diocese were also futile.

However, sources at the district, explain that the school management committee has, on a number of occasions, failed the headteachers that are posted to the school.
“They always want headteachers to dance to their tune. They are interested in making money. This has always led to grievances and constant changes in the school’s administration,” a source explains.

The current headteacher has a vast experience in administration. In the last decade, he has headed four schools. After his teacher training, he taught at Budo Junior for 17 years from 1983. Kavulu, who holds a Masters in Education Management and Planning, has been head of Entebbe Municipal Primary Schools Headteachers’ Association for six years.

He headed Kkungu Primary School (1997 to 1999), Kitegomba Primary School (2000) and Chadwick Namate Primary (July 2000-2009). He was later retuned to a school he knew so well. It is a matter of time, for the public to tell if he can sweep better.

For Kayongo, his administration was put to the test by the inferno — his professional career was nurtured at Budo Junior. Right from his teacher-training, Kayongo was posted as a teacher to Budo Junior, later made the acting headteacher and finally a substantive headteacher.

Way forward
But as Kavulu says, there is hope Budo Junior will be better. “We are renovating the school. A new management committee will be set up and we shall make sure that all stakeholders are returned on board,” he explains.

Kavulu says the school, in the next three years, will clear all debts. By the time the dormitory was gutted by fire, the school was heavily indebted.

Most of the students have managed to return. Out of the 1,300 pupils in the school, 847 returned. “It is a great achievement.

Many people thought the school would collapse, but we have managed to overturn that,” he says. But will the wounds heal completely? It is a desperate prayer.

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