At least five girls of Standard College Ntungamo have been hospitalized after a fire gutted down a girls’ dormitory at the school, the Daily Monitor reports.
Trouble started after the female students were denied chance to have preps with their male counterparts.
Police say the fire started on Thursday midnight and burnt the entire girls’ dormitory housing Senior Four (S4) students.
Four of the students with burns were rushed to Ntungamo Family Clinic while two others with severe burns were taken to Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.
According to the District Police Commander Geoffrey Orachi, the fire started after the students had threatened to strike and cut off the entire power supply to the school, protesting being locked inside the dormitories by school security guards.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We responded in time and tried to put off the fire but it was too much and one of the girls’ dormitories was burnt to ashes. However, we managed to put off the fire before it could spread to other dormitories and offices in the same building,” Mr. Orachi said.
Other students however indicate that trouble started after the female students were denied chance to have preps with their male counterparts. They claim the security guards had locked the dormitories from outside to prevent them from accessing classrooms for preps.
In protest, they reportedly bolted the dormitory from inside before setting it on fire.
A security guard at the school confirmed that the school administration had instructed them at the beginning of the term to lock the female in the dormitory to prevent stop them sneaking out to town to meet their male colleagues at night.
Mr Boaz Ruyimbazi, the school headmaster, declined to comment on the issue, saying he was still in shock.
ADVERTISEMENT
Police have since arrested 32 students in connection with the incident.
