Catechist drowns in Lake Bunyonyi
Residents standing at Kayanga landing site in Murambo village, Nyamiryango parish in Butanda Sub County as Marine police and local divers look for the body of the drowned catechist. PHOTO/ ROBERT MUHEREZA
The Marine police are working around the clock to retrieve the body of Nafutali Kizabona, 35, a catechist at Kayanga Catholic Church in Kabale Diocese, after a dugout canoe in which he was sailing capsized in Lake Bunyonyi.
The police spokesperson for Kigezi sub region, Mr Elly Maate, said that the incident happened Monday morning at about 7am, when the canoe had reached in the middle of the lake.
The deceased was a resident of Butanda Sub County in Kabale District.
"Marine Police visited the scene and established that he did not use protective gears and lost balance of the canoe which caused him to capsize. Efforts to trace his body are being made so that he is given a decent burial," Mr Maate said.
Mr Enock Kazooba, the Mayor for Ryakarimira town council has appealed to the government to quicken the process of establishing a ferry on the lake in order to save lives.
“I appeal to the community members living around lake Bunyonyi to stop using dugout canoes especially during this period when there are a lot of water waves on the lake due to strong winds. All people intending to cross lake Bunyonyi during this period should use engine boats because they are safer as compared to the dugout canoes,” Mr Kazooba said.
In 2016 as he campaigned in the region, Mr Museveni pledged government's commitment to construct a ferry as a means of transport on Lake Bunyonyi, following a request by local community leaders who told the President that the poor means of transport on the lake had since become a death trap.
Similar accidents
Last year in August three residents of Butanda Sub County died after the dugout canoe in which they were sailing capsized in the middle of Lake Bunyonyi.
In June 2018, five residents of Hamukaka village in Kyenyi Parish in Muko Sub County, also drowned and died after the canoe they were sailing in capsized as they crossed from Hamukaka landing site to Karambo landing site where they were going to work in their crop gardens.
On Aug 20, 2016, five people from the same family and residents of Rwanyena in Rubaya Sub County also drowned after a locally made boat they were sailing in capsized in the middle of the lake as they returned from a wedding ceremony of their relative in the neighborhood.
