9-year-old pupil hangs self for fear of punishment
Grief Tuesday struck residents of Makindye Zone in Kangulumira Town Council, Kayunga District, after a Primary Three pupil hanged herself for fear of being punished.
Nine-year-old Lamula Nandobya allegedly sneaked into a neighbour’s home and picked charcoal without her permission to prepare breakfast.
Nandobya, who was a pupil of Kangulumira CoU Primary School, had stayed home since Arts teachers are currently on strike over a pay rise.
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Mr Innocent Dusabe, the district officer in-charge of the Criminal Investigations Department, confirmed that the deceased had stolen charcoal from Ms Salima Namuwoma to prepare tea for the family.
“When the neighbour found her stealing the charcoal, she (Namuwoma) got infuriated and threatened to report her to her mother, Ms Fauza Kyebayenda, who had by that time gone to Amber Court in Jinja Town to sell fruits,” Mr Dusaba said.
A neighbour, who preferred anonymity, told Daily Monitor that after threatening to report the matter to her mother, Nandobya felt startled and started wailing as she pleaded for forgiveness.
“I later saw her entering their house. I thought the matter had been settled,” the neighbour said.
How she died
Rauma Nandobya, the deceased’s elder sister, who had stayed home to take care of her two siblings , said when the deceased entered one of the rooms, she followed her and found her attempting to take her life.
“I found her standing on a blue plastic chair tying a rope on one of the poles. She told me that she cannot wait for our mother to beat her,” Rauma said.
However, she warned her against committing suicide before leaving her to attend to the other sibling (a baby) who was outside crying.
“l never went back to the room and it was our mother, who upon returning home, asked for her whereabouts and I told her she was in that room. On checking the room, she found her dangling by the rope dead,” Rauma said, before breaking down in tears.
Ms Kyebayenda described her daughter as disciplined but wondered why she had committed suicide.
“I think if she had gone to school, she would not have died but this strike has caused all this,” she said.
Ms Hellen Butoto, the Ssezibwa region police spokesperson, partly blamed the incident on parents who don’t discipline their children with love.
“It is a sad incident indeed for a Primary Three to think of ending her life that way,” Ms Butoto said.
Police took the body to Kayunga Hospital for a postmortem.
