VITAL QUESTIONS GOVT MUST ANSWER ON BUDO

Vital questions govt must answer on Budo


About 40 children have died in boarding primary school fires in the last two years alone with the latest being Budo where 20 (8- year-olds) perished. At least 21 fire outbreaks have been reported in both primary and secondary boarding schools in the last six years.

The statistics are shocking given the fact that the government has done little or nothing to stem this destructive trend. It’s equally alarming for a whole Cabinet minister in charge of Education, Ms Namirembe Bitamazire to publicly concede that her ministry doesn’t have capacity to supervise and monitor education and safety standards in both private and government schools throughout the country.

One will then wonder why a ministry with no capacity to enforce standards in the growing number of schools should licence them in the first place. Then you have an awkward policy where primary schools are left to the control of local authorities while secondary schools are under the direct control of the Ministry of Education.

And all this haphazard management of our education institutions is carried out at the time when greed which comes along with commercialisation of education takes centre stage at the peril of innocent lives, property and education standards in the country. Like in the case of Budo, many schools are crammed with pupils/students which ultimately leads to crowded dormitories. You find pupils sleeping on four decker-beds in very poor conditions. Surely!

That’s why some fundamental questions need to be answered by the Ministry of Education leadership and the government in general. Does the ministry have safety standards and regulations for boarding and day-mixed and single primary and secondary schools?

Does the ministry have an inspectorate department that monitors schools to enforce the standards? Should commercialisation of education ( a P.1 pupil at Budo pays a whopping Shs600,000 per term) take priority over safety standards and instilling good values in the youngsters?

International legal instruments and our Constitution call for the special protection of children - to allow them their individual rights to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially - in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity.

This is why those responsible for the Budo murder - yes murder, should not escape the rule of law. Right from the top leadership in the Ministry of Education down to the gateman on that fateful Tuesday night – must all be brought to account.
President Yoweri Museveni has called it criminal negligence but to many others - this pure is murder. The elements of a criminal case of murder are clear.


There must be a dead body (we have many bodies at Budo), malice aforethought and the participation of the accused person plus of course the killing must be unlawful. All these elements can easily be established in the Budo tragedy. But then, you have a frustrating police force which is bedeviled with a terrible lack of capacity to carry out conclusive investigations and gather compelling evidence to have a successful prosecution.

Don’t forget that this same police under its department of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for reasons only known to itself, has failed to conclusively investigate many cases including those of some notorious pastors who sodomise teenagers.

The Fire Brigade is just a department in name. With a handful of very slow moving fire engines they normally show up after destruction has already happened.
So what should the Budo parents do under these worrisome circumstance? They can still find a remedy in civil negligence and occupier’s liability.

Government cannot escape under these torts (civil actions ) because of the principle of vicarious liability ( master to servant , principal and agent) relationship.

The writer is a journalist and advocate
msserwanga@gmail.com

About 40 children have died in boarding primary school fires in the last two years alone with the latest being Budo where 20 (8- year-olds) perished. At least 21 fire outbreaks have been reported in both primary and secondary boarding schools in the last six years.

The statistics are shocking given the fact that the government has done little or nothing to stem this destructive trend. It’s equally alarming for a whole Cabinet minister in charge of Education, Ms Namirembe Bitamazire to publicly concede that her ministry doesn’t have capacity to supervise and monitor education and safety standards in both private and government schools throughout the country.

One will then wonder why a ministry with no capacity to enforce standards in the growing number of schools should licence them in the first place. Then you have an awkward policy where primary schools are left to the control of local authorities while secondary schools are under the direct control of the Ministry of Education.

And all this haphazard management of our education institutions is carried out at the time when greed which comes along with commercialisation of education takes centre stage at the peril of innocent lives, property and education standards in the country. Like in the case of Budo, many schools are crammed with pupils/students which ultimately leads to crowded dormitories. You find pupils sleeping on four decker-beds in very poor conditions. Surely!

That’s why some fundamental questions need to be answered by the Ministry of Education leadership and the government in general. Does the ministry have safety standards and regulations for boarding and day-mixed and single primary and secondary schools?

Does the ministry have an inspectorate department that monitors schools to enforce the standards? Should commercialisation of education ( a P.1 pupil at Budo pays a whopping Shs600,000 per term) take priority over safety standards and instilling good values in the youngsters?

International legal instruments and our Constitution call for the special protection of children - to allow them their individual rights to develop physically, mentally, morally, spiritually and socially - in a healthy and normal manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity.

This is why those responsible for the Budo murder - yes murder, should not escape the rule of law. Right from the top leadership in the Ministry of Education down to the gateman on that fateful Tuesday night – must all be brought to account.
President Yoweri Museveni has called it criminal negligence but to many others - this pure is murder. The elements of a criminal case of murder are clear.


There must be a dead body (we have many bodies at Budo), malice aforethought and the participation of the accused person plus of course the killing must be unlawful. All these elements can easily be established in the Budo tragedy. But then, you have a frustrating police force which is bedeviled with a terrible lack of capacity to carry out conclusive investigations and gather compelling evidence to have a successful prosecution.

Don’t forget that this same police under its department of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for reasons only known to itself, has failed to conclusively investigate many cases including those of some notorious pastors who sodomise teenagers.

The Fire Brigade is just a department in name. With a handful of very slow moving fire engines they normally show up after destruction has already happened.
So what should the Budo parents do under these worrisome circumstance? They can still find a remedy in civil negligence and occupier’s liability.

Government cannot escape under these torts (civil actions ) because of the principle of vicarious liability ( master to servant , principal and agent) relationship.

The writer is a journalist and advocate
msserwanga@gmail.com