President Yoweri Museveni has in a statement condoled with families that lost their loved ones in the L.Victoria tragedy over the weekend where 32 people drowned.
He also explained that from a security briefing, the killer boat was a private, unregistered and unlicensed. It was also overloaded with about 120 people on board, instead of the normal capacity of 50.
The president adds in the statement released last evening, that due to loud music that revelers were enjoying, it could have been hard for them to hear the captain’s emergency command. Police is yet to discover him dead or alive.
“When the police and UPDF got information from the fishermen, they rushed in and rescued people. This is why apart from the anti-bad fishing campaign which the UPDF has been carrying out for some months now on the lakes, the government has also ordered the electronic registration and monitoring of all boats so that we can know who is where on the lake and why” the president says.
This also comes at a time when the president has ordered the tax body, Uganda Revenue Authority to electronically monitor phone calls and put electronic scanners at all borders used by buses, railways and planes to ensure that all goods imported into the country are up to standard.
“The five times I crossed in small boats or canoes some of the lakes of East Africa (thrice Lake Victoria and two times Lake Tanganyika), I found them very dangerous to cross when you are not fully prepared; no overloading, standby engines, life jackets, reliable navigation etc. let everybody take the warning from the tragedy” he says.
Mr. Museveni prayed that the killer boat operators will be charged with criminal negligence and manslaughter, “if they have not already been punished for their mistake by dying in the accident.”
