Bodies of people drowned in River Rwizi recovered

By Our Reporter

11^th May 2023

The Police, rescuers and local divers have recovered three bodies from River Rwizi during the ongoing search for those who drowned earlier this week.

Two of the retrieved bodies are yet to be identified.

On Monday around 7:30pm, a canoe carrying four people capsized in the river, resulting in the deaths of three occupants. 

The deceased were identified as Rukundo Amutuhaire, a 19-year-old senior five student of Five-star High School Ntungamo, Timothy Kakuru, a 23-year-old second-year medical lab student at Mbarara University of Science and Technology and Lozio alias Rastaman, the owner of the canoe.

Willy Musa, a 33-year-old resident of Nyakaizi, was the sole survivor. 

The search efforts were boosted by a team of marines, led by Sergeant Alyasi Wakadala from the Fire and Rescue Services in Kampala, who arrived at the scene on Wednesday to assist in finding the missing people. 

So far, the team has only managed to retrieve three people, one of whom was Timothy Kakuru.

The other two people are yet to be identified, and the search has covered a distance of more than 5 meters.  

Samson Kasasira, the Rwizi Regional Police spokesperson, confirms that the marine team and locals have retrieved some bodies and taken them to Mbarara Referral Hospital. 

END