37 students’ poisoning… police shuts school, arrests 4 kitchen staff

Four persons have been arrested by the Police in Kenya over last Wednesday's poisoning of nearly 40 pupils at Namutumba Junior Primary School.

gathered that 37 boarding students were admitted to Iganga hospital with diarrhoea, vomiting and headache, shortly after breakfast on Wednesday, 18th of February.

According to a Daily Monitor report, a medical officer at the hospital, Dr Isa Isabirye, said the students took ill after eating contaminated food.

District Police Commander, Tom Bainomugisha, said the students were given poisoned porridge.

Isabirye’s report led police to arrests four persons whose identities have not been stated.

Student Pulse however gathered from a report that the arrested persons are kitchen staff of the school.

The school was shut down the following day, following a Thursday inspection by the Busoga East Region Police Commander, Mr Ashraf Chemonges.

Chemonges said the school lacked proper facilities and should not have been licensed in the first place.

“The school is not fenced, the structures are makeshift, made up of papyrus reeds and the so-called dormitories are congested. I wonder how the ministry gave them a license,” he said.

The police boss called on the Ministry of Education to revisit the school before another tragedy occurs.

Most of the positioned students have been discharged.

Namutumba Junior Primary School has 109 pupils in its boarding section.