Busia school fire: Parents endure long wait for DNA results

Parents of four pupils who died in a Monday Busia school dormitory fire say they are “traumatized” after learning that they will have to wait until this week to get the Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) results.

James Magero, Muhamood Ali, David Makokha Pedro and John Richard Oburu perished in a blaze that gutted the boys’ dormitory at Victory Nursery and Primary School in Busia District on March 18.

The 1am fire broke out as 62 pupils slept in the ill-fated dormitory.

Earlier, Bukedi South Region Police spokesperson Moses Mugwe said the police surgeon in Mbale City had successfully taken samples from the deceased and their mothers- and sent them to Kampala for analysis.

According to Mugwe, the samples are now at the police headquater laboratory in Kampala for “testing and matching.”

“As soon as the results are back, the parents will be allowed to proceed and have the bodies of their children so that they can be taken for a decent burial,” Mugwe further explained.

Police say the bodies were “totally burnt”, and that is why they subjected them to DNA.

Deceased Muhamood’s mother Cissy Were believes the process should have been faster, saying “the more time she is kept waiting, the more trauma she suffers.”

“I wonder why the process of testing the samples is taking so long! I assumed after samples were taken from me, results would be the following day,” she said on Saturday.

She added: “We had samples taken from us last Tuesday in Mbale City, but since then, police have been telling us to be patient.”

Kopolyano Wandera, father to deceased fire victim Magero, said: “We have to wait until this week because our children were burnt beyond recognition, and the tests will help to fully identify the bodies.”

Reuben Osinde, father to another fire victim Oburu, said “they have no option but to wait and allow the police to do thorough analysis.”

Meanwhile, the parents urged a quick probe and justice for the departed youngsters.

“We expect schools to be the safest place for our children, but when they die, we need police to expedite investigations,” Wandera said.

Pupil fire survivors earlier told this publication that a fire ball was thrown into the dormitory through one of the windows.

But Principal Education Officer in the department of basic education at the Ministry of Education and Sports Safina Mutumba said she feared the fire came from outside the dormitory.

“Police are investigating this matter, but we are highly suspicious that the fire came from outside and never started from the dormitory. The dormitory was congested, had outlawed double-deckers, and did not provide any emergency exit for learners in case of a fire outbreak,” she noted last week.