After attack, Kasese survivors are hated

In the hilly town of Kisinga, located in Kasese district, Western Uganda, a sense of mourning hangs heavily in the air.

The recent attack on Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School has left the community shattered, as they grapple with the loss of 28 loved ones. Among the victims were 39 students and five members of the community, with ten more students still missing.

In the wake of the tragedy, two survivors, 16-year-olds Edgar Mumbere and Moses Kato, find themselves facing rejection and isolation in their own community.

The grief-stricken community has turned against the survivors, unable to comprehend why it was Kato and Mumbere who escaped the attack while their own children perished. Fearing further harm, local leaders have anonymously suggested that the survivors be relocated to a different school outside of Kisinga.

They worry that someone might attempt to hurt Kato and Mumbere, inflicting further pain on the families who have already suffered such immense losses.

“The community is against them [survivors]. Most people cannot fathom why it is they [Kato and Mumbere] who escaped the attack, yet their children died! If possible, their parents should find a new school for them elsewhere, probably outside Kisinga. Someone might attempt to hurt them,” a local leader said.

Dr Paul Nyende, a lecturer at Makerere University School of Psychology, believes that the community’s anger is misplaced. He emphasizes that their anger should be directed at the assailants and perhaps the authorities for failing to protect the children, rather than towards the survivors.

Dr Nyende highlights the lack of preparation for disaster management in the community and the need for psychological support for the survivors. He stresses the importance of providing them with professional help to cope with their trauma and prevent further re-traumatization.

A SICK COMMUNITY

“Our community is sick. We have never prepared them for disaster management, which is crucial in community psychology. If the community keeps blaming the survivors, they will end up re-traumatizing them. Since survivors already have survivor’s guilt, they need psychological first aid and intensive trauma management by professional clinical psychologists to help them look at the world positively. We need to move these survivors from this community to a positive environment,” he said.

Speaking to The Observer, a visibly distressed Kato shares his uncertain educational future. Having lost everything in the attack, he has no idea where to begin.

His mother, who initially believed he had died, had to take out a loan from a financial services company to organize his requiem mass. She is still repaying the loan, leaving her with no money to send him back to school. Kato had joined Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School because it was affordable, with his mother struggling to raise the fees even then. Now, with the school destroyed, he feels lost and unsure of what to do next.

“I lost everything in the fire. I have nowhere to start. My mother doesn’t have money to send me back to school. She initially thought I had died. She got a loan from Brac, a financial services company, to organize my requiem mass. She is still servicing the loan. There’s no money. I joined the school because it was affordable. I was paying Shs 60,000 a term in boarding school, but my mother still struggled to raise it. The school is no more. I don’t know where to go next (sobs),” a teary Kato said.

Edgar Mumbere, also a survivor and in senior high school at the time of the attack, shares Kato’s concerns about continuing his education. He desperately wants to continue his studies, but his parents lack the financial means to support him. He hopes for the assistance of a well-wisher who can help him pursue his education.

Regardless of when he returns to school, he knows that he will face the same national exams as his peers who haven’t experienced such a setback. Mumbere also mourns the loss of his friends, struggling to accept that they are gone.

“I honestly want to continue with my education, but my parents do not have money. If a well-wisher can support my education, I will be happy (sobs). I miss my friends. I struggle to believe they are dead. Every time I ask about a friend, I am told that they were also killed,” he said.

Both survivors recount the horrifying events of that fateful day. Kato remembers a bright Friday (June 16) when they had organized an inter-class football game, filled with joy and camaraderie.

Little did they know that it would be their last happy evening together. Later that night, armed men arrived at their dormitory, instilling fear, and panic. Kato vividly recalls the assailants hacking his friends to death with axes and pickaxes, while he hid under his bed, feeling utterly helpless.

The dormitory was eventually set ablaze, but Kato managed to escape with a friend through a window, leaving behind the grenade they had found for fear of carrying it through the fire.

“We organized an inter-class football game between the senior three students against us, the senior one students. The game was held at Nyabugando Baptists playground, approximately 600 meters from the school campus. We put aside Shs 7,000. All S2 and S3 students promised to forego their meals the next day if we [S1 students] won the game. The match ended at around 6pm., and we happily headed back to school. We had supper and went for evening preps. At around 9:30pm., we went to our dormitories. Little did I know that this would be the last happy evening with my friends,” he said amid sobs.

“We returned to our dormitory. Before we slept, we watched TikTok videos. As we were watching, we heard someone knocking on our door at 10:30pm. He was speaking a language like Lhukonzo, but it wasn’t the Lhukonzo we speak in Uganda. This unknown voice asked to talk to the dorm leader. We all refused to open the door because the voice was new. Our friend Lazarus (RIP) flashed his torch through the window to see the person at the entrance. He saw someone holding a gun. We all screamed at the top of our voices,” he said, adding, “One man shot a bullet through the window, and we all hid under our beds. We heard the men move towards the girls’ dormitory. Unfortunately, the girls were tricked into opening for the men. We could only hear cries for help. We could not step out to help the girls because an-armed man stayed at our door.”

“When the rebels returned from the girls’ dormitory, they broke down our door with axes. I saw all my friends being killed. The assailants used axes and pickaxes to kill my friends. The images are still vivid in my head. When they were almost reaching me, I crawled and hid on the upper bed. Every time the assailants moved the beds to one side, I would fall with the moving bed. They didn’t see me. When they were done, the assailants used a lighter to set the entire house ablaze. Within the heavy smoke, I heard someone struggling to breathe. I told him to come out so that we could run outside for safety. It was my friend Isingoma,” he said.

“We ran through the fire. My arm got burned. We crawled under the school’s barbed wire and hid in the groundnut garden. The headmaster’s wife, who was breastfeeding, joined us in the hideout. I saw a man moving towards us. I told her to climb a tree, but she couldn’t manage with the baby. I climbed a cocoa tree in the school neighborhood and stayed there until morning. The headmaster’s wife was left unhurt because of her baby,” Kato added.

Mumbere, who was also hiding under his bed, witnessed the brutal killings of his friends. As the assailants hacked and shot at them, he saw his friends fall one by one. When the dormitory was set on fire, he made his escape, hiding behind walls and in a garden until the early hours of the morning, when Ugandan soldiers arrived.

“I was hiding under the bed. When these assailants cut through the door, they began hacking all my friends with hoes, axes, and pickaxes. I was gripped with fear. When they had killed everyone, they started shooting under the beds because that’s where we were hiding. The first bullet killed the person in front of me. The bullet hit him in the chest, and he died instantly. The second one missed my leg, and it hit my friend in the thigh. He also bled to death. The assailants then set the dormitory ablaze. I sneaked out when the dormitory was up in flames,” Mumbere, another survivor, recalled his ordeal.

GOVT SOLDIERS COME

“I first hid behind the wall fence. When I peered, the gunman was hiding behind the same fence. I skipped the fence and hid in a groundnut garden behind a tree stump. At around 1am, the soldiers came to the school. They said they were Ugandan soldiers and were here to protect us. I didn’t leave my hideout until I was sure they were Ugandan soldiers,” he said.

Amid the tragedy, a group of private Ugandans, led by Daniel Bwambale, Anthony Natif, and journalist Agather Atuhaire, visited the families of those who lost loved ones in the attack.

They sought to offer support and solidarity, using social media platforms to mobilize funds for the grieving families. Bwambale expressed the importance of standing with the affected families, acknowledging that losing a child is an indescribable pain. Many of the victims were the first in their families to pursue secondary education, and their dreams have been tragically cut short.

As the community of Kisinga mourns, the survivors, Kato and Mumbere, face an uncertain future. Their education has been disrupted, and their own community has turned against them. In the face of such adversity, their stories serve as a reminder of the need for support, compassion, and a community that stands together in times of tragedy.