Police find details of missing boat victims

Police yesterday recovered identification documents of nine people believed to have been aboard the ill-fated MV Templar boat, and none had previously been named among survivors or the dead.

Investigators said the discoveries of the documents; driving permits, national and or work Identity Cards and Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards, which were found floating on water or washed ashore, is the latest strongest indicator that there are unaccounted for victims.

Among the IDs are that of a banker and another of a lawyer. In total, nine of the newly-named persons are women and two men. Until now, police said they had registered 59 victims; 32 dead and 27 survivors.
Ms Zurah Ganyana, the spokesperson of the Rescue and Recovery Operation, yesterday listed names on the documents as Doreen Arinaitwe, Samali Nakakazi, Stellah Nabasa, Linda Nankungu, Mariam Nakigudde, Irene Alitubela, Paul Apuuli, Mark Kawalya and a one Namayanja.

There is no precise figure of the number of people on the MV Templar barge, which was on a joy ride with merrymakers from KK beach at Ggaba Landing Site and destined to K Palm Beach in Mukono District.

Varying accounts
It plunged into the murky water mid-way close to Mutima Beach, where the coxswain sought to dock it as an emergency measure amid distress calls by panic-stricken passengers following a malfunction.
Survivors and witnesses, including rescuers, told police that they estimate those on board numbered anywhere between 80 and 140.

There was no manifest or an inventory of passengers, meaning detectives are presently guessing when reporting on the number of victims, particularly unaccounted-for persons. Some bodies are believed to be trapped under the vessel wreckage.
Different attempts to retrieve the boat debris, part of which remains visible, failed for the second day yesterday.
By nightfall, officials abandoned the use of self-loader truck brought aboard MV Kalangala ferry to lift up the wreckage as darkness blurred visibility for marines.

An excavator deployed earlier in the day failed after a rope, and later a cable, used to fasten the wreckage to pull it out snapped.
A rope tug tactic employed by a crowd to drag out the crashed boat similarly failed on Monday.
No additional body of a victim was retrieved yesterday but divers had reportedly spotted one beneath the boat wreckage. MV Templar capsized at about 7pm on Saturday, just about 100 metres from Mutima Beach on Lake Victoria in Mukono District’s Mpatta Sub-county.

The merrymakers were drinking and dancing on board before the disaster struck, according to videos some shared on their social media accounts.
Among the celebrities who survived are Prince David Wasajja and artiste Irene Namubiru while the boat owner Templa Bisase and his wife Sheila perished. They were buried yesterday.
Police recovered at least 30 rucksacks and handbags from the accident site yesterday, which they said relatives and friends could use to identify missing victims.
Inside the ladies’ bags were mainly make-up kits, unused male condoms and spare clothes, according to Ms Ganyana.

GOVT DECLARES NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING
Government yesterday declared Friday, this week, as a day of national mourning for the victims of last weekend’s boat tragedy.
“The government has declared a national day of mourning on Friday for Ugandans who were lost in the Lake Victoria boat tragedy,” Mr Julius Mucunguzi, the head of communication at the Office of the Prime Minister, said by telephone last night.
The day will, however, not be a public holiday, he said.

Flags will on the day fly at half-mast and it remains unclear if there will be national prayers or other activities organised by the government to honour the dead, among them some wealthy citizens and socialites.
The MV Templar from KK Beach at Ggaba Landing Site in Kampala and en-route to K Palm Beach in Mukono District, capsized at about 7pm on Saturday. Thirty-two people died and 27 survived, police said in a report on a largely barren fourth day of recovery efforts yesterday.