What started as an ordinary school day at Ta’aliim Primary School and Quran Memorisation Centre in Kawempe, Kampala, reportedly turned into a heartbreaking tragedy after several pupils developed serious stomach complications, with four young girls eventually losing their lives in circumstances suspected to involve poisoning.
According to accounts emerging from the school and affected families, the incident is believed to have started after one of the pupils reportedly brought oranges to school and shared them with fellow learners. The child was said to have collected the fruits from Kifumbiro-Manyangwa in Wakiso District over the weekend and carried them to school in a green polythene bag. The oranges were reportedly shared with other children, although investigators are yet to establish whether they were actually responsible for the deaths.
Reports indicate that the first signs of trouble emerged during the night when one pupil complained of stomach complications. She was reportedly given paracetamol, but her condition continued worsening. Soon afterwards, other pupils who had allegedly eaten the same oranges also started experiencing similar symptoms, including severe vomiting.
As the situation became more serious, the school director and dormitory matron reportedly rushed the affected children to a nearby clinic for first aid. However, their conditions continued deteriorating, forcing the school to contact parents and release some of the sick pupils to their families. Several parents were subsequently called and asked to collect their children as the emergency unfolded.
One of the heartbreaking accounts came from the family of nine-year-old Failuzi Nabeta, a Primary Three pupil. Her parents reportedly received a telephone call from the school informing them that their daughter was seriously unwell. They rushed her to a nearby clinic, where her condition appeared to stabilise around 5pm on Tuesday. However, after taking her home, her condition reportedly worsened again during the night, and she died while being rushed to Kasangati Hospital.
Another victim, 11-year-old Mariam Nakitende, a Primary Four pupil, was reportedly brought home at around 1pm in a barely responsive condition. Her father, Hassan Magumba, said the child was foaming at the mouth when she arrived home. The family immediately rushed her to Anex Medical Centre, where she was pronounced dead at approximately 2pm. Meanwhile, another parent said his daughter, Rwahim Kiruta, was rushed to Mulago Hospital after falling sick. Doctors reportedly conducted blood tests that ruled out malaria and suspected food poisoning, but the girl later died in the early hours of the morning. The fourth victim was identified as 11-year-old Nusufa Nasuna, also a Primary Four pupil.
Following the deaths, police detectives and forensic officers launched investigations to establish what exactly happened to the children. Officers visited the school, collected orange peels for laboratory examination and began gathering information from pupils, teachers and other people who could help explain the circumstances. The school’s headteacher, Muzahim Ssuuna, was also arrested to assist with the investigations, while the school was reportedly closed and treated as a crime scene.
Police are now expected to rely on postmortem examinations and forensic findings to establish the actual cause of the four deaths. Although the oranges are at the centre of the investigation, authorities have not yet conclusively established that they contained poison or that eating them caused the children’s deaths. The tragedy has left four families mourning their daughters and raised serious questions about what happened at the school, how the children became sick and whether their lives could have been saved.
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