Search for boat victims ends, probe starts

The recovery operation of the killer boat wreckage and search for bodies ended on Friday when the boat that capsized last Saturday was finally pulled out of Lake Victoria, leaving security agencies to now focus on finding and interviewing key survivors of the accident.

The death remained at 32 people and the actual number of survivors still remains unknown since there was no manifest (record of those who boarded). For now, the known survivors are above 40.

The spokesperson for the rescue and recovery operation, Ms Zurah Gannyana, said the operation’s directorate has handed over the wreckage to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations to carry out their inquest.
“Our focus first was to salvage the boat. The next step is investigations. The detectives are now going to talk to those who were on board,” Ms Gannyana said on Saturday.

MV Templar capsized at Mutima beach as it was sailing to K Palm Beach in Mukono District.
The owners of the boat, Templar Bisase and his wife Sheila Bisase, whom police said were the key suspects, died in the accident.

Police have not established yet who was steering the boat at the time of the accident.

Mr Asuman Mugenyi, the director of police operations, said Prince Wasajja is being treated as a witness in the case.
Singer Iryn Namubiru who survived the accident, said businessman Freeman Kiyimba was in charge of organising the event and that he told her before the boat arrived at KK Beach that it had technical issues.

But Mr Kiyimba, in his narration to the media, said he neither knew the owner of the boat nor the mechanical state in which the boat was in before they set off.
Mr Kiyimba said he got to know that the boat was in poor mechanical condition when they had boarded it.