Police in Kira is investigating circumstances around which four children in the same household died in a fire on Thursday morning.
The incident happened at the home of Annet Naigaga, a local businesswoman dealing in roasted maize and yellow bananas at Kawuku Cell, Malawa parish, Kira division, in Wakiso district.
Police in the area has identified the four children as Namilindwa Even 8, Isan Kibuuka 6, Nansubuga Noreen 3, and a one Cynthia.
According to the Kampala Metropolitan Police deputy spokesperson Luke Owoyesigyire, Naigaga left her home early in the morning to go fetch water from a nearby well about 500 metres from her home, leaving the four children home to fate.
“It is alleged that the children were left inside their old two-bedroom, semi-permanent house with their elder sister, a 12-year-old Catherine Nakkasi who was preparing to go to school,” Owoyesigyire said.
Adding, “Upon returning home from the well, the woman saw a lot of smoke coming from the house, the four children were crying for help inside the house and the door was closed, she made an alarm and attempted to enter, but the fire was too much.”
Owoyesigyire said that police at Kira Division have opened up inquiries into the incident and preliminary investigations indicate that there was a fuelled motorcycle inside the house, which was the root cause of the fire.
The KMP police deputy spokesperson said that another account alleges that Nakasi (the elder sister) might have left a candle burning inside the house before she left for school, and that this candle might have ignited the fire.
By press time, the four bodies had been conveyed to the city mortuary Mulago for postmortem.
