Rakai fire: Police to carry out DNA tests to confirm identity of deceased students

Police is set to carry out DNA tests onto the bodies of students who died in the Rakai fire and their relatives in a bid to identify them, the Nile Post has learnt.

On Sunday night, tragedy befell St.Bernard Secondary School, Manya in Kifamba sub -county, Rakai district when a boys’ dormitory was set ablaze by unknown people killing ten students instantly.

Rakai District Police Commander, Ben Kashumbusha confirmed that by the time the police fire brigade arrived, the ten students had been burnt beyond recognition.

A number of property including clothes, mattresses, books and other scholastic materials were also destroyed by the fire that gutted the dormitory .

This website has separately learnt that DNA tests are set to be carried out in a bid to ascertain the identities of the dead students.

“We shall carry out DNA tests on the dead bodies who are no longer recognizable and the parents to be able to identify the dead students and their relatives take the bodies for burial,” said a source that preferred anonymity because he is not allowed to speak on the matter.

Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima later said a team of experts and high level delegation had arrived at the school to continue with investigations.

“A high level delegation of senior police officers including forensic teams have been sent to the school that suffered the fire in Rakai district,”Kayima said.

Fellow students traumatised

The police mouthpiece said the tragic incident has traumatised a number of students at the school including the senior six candidates who kicked off their Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education examinations today.

“Many students are believed to be traumatised due to the inferno and the death. Notably the senior six candidates who are starting their exams this morning were too traumatised but the police spoke to them about the situation,”Kayima said.

He said that the names of the deceased students will not be revealed to the public until their relatives have been made aware of the deaths to avoid any possible outcome.

The Rakai DPC had earlier told this website that some students who have just completed their UCE exams and the dormitory warden had been arrested to help in investigations after leads had that there was a group of expelled students from the school who could have been behind the fire.

“We have not clearly found out how they accessed the school but we suspect that they coordinated the mission together with colleagues inside the school that on the day of the mission, it was easy for them to access the school,” the senior police officer said.

“On entering, the assailants who were armed with petrol and matchboxes first put padlocks on the dormitory’s door setting it ablaze.”

A total of over 50 students were admitted to Kitovu government hospital in critical condition after the tragic incident.

The police spokesperson however cautioned managements of various schools and other institutions of higher learning to around the country to tighten security around their schools to avoid incidents of the same nature.

“Given the fact that some criminal elements often repeat a crime like this to provoke security without thought that it destroys lives, schools should be vigilant,”Kayima said.

Following the April 2008, fire that gutted a girls’ dormitory at Buddo Junior School leaving 20 pupils dead, more school dormitories and buildings around the country caught fire under unclear circumstances in the months and years following.