Seven children die in suffocation incident in Mubende

MUBENDE  | ACCIDENT

Seven children, five from one family, have died after sufforcating in a make-shift structure they were sheltering in during an afternoon downpour.

Muhamad Kalisa being consoled by friends

Nanyonga looks on in shock

This happened in Kisenyi, Kitenga in Mubende district, when parents who had left the children in a makeshift shelter built near their beans garden, returned only to discover the lifeless bodies of the children, with only one still alive and struggling for breath.

Muhamad Kalisa and Resty Nanyonga had gone to look for food, leaving the children in the care of an older sibling Madinah Nakyanzi. 

Nakyanzi, the lone survivor

Nakyanzi, the only survivor, narrated that when it started raining, she decided to light a stove to keep the children warm. Without realising the dander of smoke inhalation, she says they later fell asleep and when she woke up, she realised she was feeling weak.

It was as she crawled out of the hut to seek help that the parents arrived, only to discover the seven other children had suffocated and died in their sleep due to the fumes from the stove.

The bodies of the children were retrieved and taken to the mortuary at Mubende Hospital. The inconsolable parents say they were delayed by the rain.

They added that the poor roads, which became slippery during the rain, forced them to abandon the boda boda that was rushing them back to their children and they had to walk the rest of the way instead. 

The children's grandmother