{UAH} Emotional meltdown at burial of 4 siblings knocked by speeding trailer ~ Ugandans At Heart (UAH)

Emotional meltdown at burial of 4 siblings knocked by speeding trailer

MONDAY JULY 12 2021

Mourners pay their last respects to four siblings who were knocked dead by a truck at Manafwa Bridge in Busiu Town Council, Mbale District, on Saturday. Photo/Yahudu Kitunzi

Summary

Earlier, Mr Fred Nashimolo, a witness, said the driver of the truck carrying cement from Tororo District was trying to overtake another vehicle at the bridge before he collided with an oncoming truck from Mbale.
The deceased are Ivan Mayima, 25; Boniface Woniaye, 13, who sat Primary Leaving Examinations this year at Rise and Shine Primary School; Jackson Mukhwana, 12, a Class Four pupil at Rongoro Primary School; and, Mutonyi Khaka, 23.

By Yahudu Kitunzi

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Thick clouds drifted menacingly over Rongoro Village in Busoba sub-county, blanketing the afternoon sun, and rendering mother earth an ominous shade.
It was tragedy on the ground, and one of unbearable proportion in this rural homestead about 500 metres off Mbale-Tororo highway.

In the compound of the home of Mr John Wabwere and Ms Lovisa Lunyolo, emotions overwhelmed mourners at the sight of four white coffins lined up in a row.
Inside the caskets were the bodies of their children, aged 12 to 25, smashed by a trailer on Saturday.

The deceased are Ivan Mayima, 25; Boniface Woniaye, 13, who sat Primary Leaving Examinations this year at Rise and Shine Primary School; Jackson Mukhwana, 12, a Class Four pupil at Rongoro Primary School; and, Mutonyi Khaka, 23.
A speeding trailer loaded with cement from Tororo ran over the quartet and their two siblings, who are fighting for their lives at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, at Manafwa Bridge after colliding with an oncoming truck.
The six children were returning from a garden when the out-of-control heavy-duty carrier slammed into them from behind.

"It is terrible that I have lost my children. We worked in the garden up to about 10am and left to go back home. As I was coming, I received a call from my friend; so, I remained behind," Mr Wabwere, their father, said.
He added: "But shortly after like 10 minutes, I received a call that my children had been knocked by a trailer. I could not believe it until I reached the scene. I found my children without legs and hands after being crushed by the trailer."
Mr Wabwere said he would want "justice and compensation" for his children, but doubts he will succeed since he is a peasant.

The Saturday accident happened at Manafwa Bridge in Busiu Town council, on Mbale-Tororo road on Saturday, and well-wishers helped evacuate the survivors for medical care.
When the four bodies of the deceased arrived at Wabwere's home yesterday, mourners wailed wildly and loudly. Some women strutted, slapped themselves all over the body while some rolled on the ground and, in supplication and surrender, repeatedly asked God, "Why?"

The shrill pierced the village whose usual calm and quiet is broken by the rumbling of heavy trucks and sirens blaring off motorcades of government honchos.
One death in a family is painful enough, but losing four children, with two more in critical condition, in this village had until Saturday seemed only a fiery tale.
The agony for the parents, Mr Wabwere and Ms Lovisa, was describable.

Donning a checkered shirt, black trouser and open sandals, Mr Wabwere, alongside wife Lovisa dressed in a white Gomesi, could not hold back tears.
Behind their iron sheet-roofed semi-permanent main house lay four open graves. Ahead of the burial, mourners within proximity shook their heads in disbelief at the sight of the graves and walked away, weighed down by the burden of death. Others jeered to no particular person.

Many clasped their hands across the chest, staring blankly.
About 8 kilometres away, in Mbale Town, police said they had taken the errant driver into custody.
Whereas news of the arrest was reassuring that the first leg of justice had started to walk, it was nothing to assuage the bitterness, anger, frustration and pain observable among mourners.

At about 3pm, and as the skies threatened to open, the clergy strolled in a single file toward the burial site and one by one, each of the four children were interred behind the main house, a no-return transition to the next world.
Then the cumulonimbus clouds darkened further and lowered with the urgency to let up. Rain, it did, soaking the soils over the fresh graves and dispersing hundreds of mourners unrestrained by Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

The accident
Earlier, Mr Fred Nashimolo, a witness, said the driver of the truck carrying cement from Tororo District was trying to overtake another vehicle at the bridge before he collided with an oncoming truck from Mbale. "The cement truck driver lost control and ran over the children who were walking home, killing four siblings on the spot. Their two sisters were rushed to hospital in critical condition,'' Mr Nashimolo said. The Elgon region police spokesperson, Mr Rogers Taitika, said the driver of the cement truck has been arrested to help with investigations.

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