Police: No arrests yet over Rakai school inferno

Police spokesperson Emilian Kayima yesterday told a news briefing that no arrests have been made following the fire that razed a dormitory housing senior three students of St. Bernard Secondary School in Rakai on Sunday.

Kayima said that police had only interrogated six people, three students and three teachers but no one had been apprehended.

He said the police and other security agencies had intensified the manhunt for some of the suspected students said to be behind the fire that killed 10 students.

In the meantime, he said, police had flagged off a team of RPCs to visits schools across the country to aid in reminding school heads of the school safety guidelines that were released in 2008 following the Buddo Junior school fire.

"Schools have to ensure controlled access, regular security meetings, teachers should be on the premises full time and there should be regular checks since with this they can easily identify wrong elements," Kayima said.

Police however conceded that there is need extend fire brigade outlets to districts like Rakai to be able to curb these fires on time.

"Rakai is 100km from Masaka where the water hydrant is, we need hydrants distributed across the country," Kayima said.

Kayima also told journalists that postmortem results of the deceased were out and that they were awaiting a government analytical laboratory report to match the deceased with their family members before bodies can be handed over for burial.

Meanwhile,  the Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga yesterday commiserated with the people of Rakai over the incident and asked government to investigate the cause of the fire and bring the culprits to book.