Police have recovered two bodies from the Nakivubo Channel in Kampala following today’s heavy downpour.
The two bodies were recovered near Total fuel station, where they were carried by floodwater from different parts of the city.
Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango has identified one of the deceased as a female juvenile aged 12 years, named Namazzi Alyera, a resident of Nsambya Kitooro in Makindye division of Kampala. But the other deceased, a male adult, is yet to be identified.
Preliminary findings show that Namazzi was playing with her friends during the rain when their ball fell in a trench. She tried to remove the ball, but the water overpowered her and swept her away, according to Onyango.
According to police, her body was swept up to Clock Tower, where a boda-boda rider saw it and informed the police near Shoprite in Kampala. Police retrieved the body but while still at the scene, another body of a male adult yet to be identified appeared.
In May this year, 56-year-old Cissy Namukasa, a market vendor, drowned in Nakawa drainage channel during a heavy downpour. Footage from the security cameras showed Namukasa falling in a trench and being washed away towards Industrial Area by fast running water, as her body disappeared until today.
More than 190 people drowned in trenches, lakes, rivers and septic tanks last year, according to a recent report presented by the assistant inspector general of police Joseph Mugisa, the director fire and emergency rescue in Uganda Police Force.
Patrick Onyango has appealed to members of the public to be very cautious during this rainy season.