Two former students accused of causing the deadly 2018 dormitory fire at St Bernard’s Secondary School Maanya in Rakai District have challenged the prosecution’s evidence, insisting that none of it directly places them at the scene of the crime.
Alex Mugarura and Edison Niyo, who testified as defence witnesses before the High Court in Masaka on Tuesday, told Justice Victori Nakintu Katamba that they were elsewhere on the night of November 11, 2018, when the school dormitory caught fire, killing 10 students and injuring several others.
The two accused persons are facing 50 counts, including murder, attempted murder, arson and attempted arson.
Mugarura told court that on the night of the fire, he was at Niyo’s home, where they had spent the day washing their clothes and later played cards.
He said they only learnt about the fire after Juliet Nakayi, a worker at Butefu Guest House, where the suspended students had reportedly been staying, informed Niyo that the school had caught fire.
“We spent the day at Niyo Edison’s place where we had gone to wash our clothes. At night, Juliet Nakayi, a worker at Butefu Guest House where we used to live after being suspended from school, came and informed Edison, whom I was with in the house, that the school had caught fire,” Mugarura told court.
He said they later went to the place where they had been staying and were subsequently picked up by a police officer, who questioned why they had not returned home following their suspension from school.
Mugarura also challenged the circumstances surrounding their suspension, arguing that the decision to suspend him and other students may have been part of an effort to later implicate them in the fire.
According to him, another student who had allegedly broken a glass door, an incident that contributed to disciplinary action against several students, reportedly confessed before the school’s disciplinary committee but was not suspended.
He questioned why he and other students were suspended despite the alleged confession by another student.
Mugarura further told court that he had been unable to retrieve his belongings from the school because he had not completed the clearance process following his suspension.
He said the fire destroyed his property, including his Primary Seven pass slip, and claimed that he also lost friends in the tragedy.
“I have been greatly affected by this case. My education was interrupted and I was labelled a criminal, not just a criminal but a terrorist. My parents are seen as people who brought a criminal into the world. I lost friends and many other things, yet I am innocent,” Mugarura told court.
He asked the court to deliver justice, maintaining that he did not participate in the fire.
Niyo, who also testified in his defence, challenged some of the prosecution exhibits and accused the investigating officer, Butere Goffin, of giving misleading evidence about how some of the items were recovered.
He disputed claims that a laptop bag belonging to Mugarura, which was presented in court as an exhibit, had been recovered from his house.
According to Niyo, the bag had been picked from a clothesline after it had been washed.
Niyo also explained the presence of a plastic bottle with paraffin stains that was recovered from his home and presented by the prosecution as evidence.
He told court that he used the bottle to store paraffin for a lantern because his home did not have electricity.
“This can be witnessed by one of the officers who accompanied Butere during the search at my home. I remember he picked the bottle near the lamp and his colleagues told him that it could have been used to keep paraffin for the lamp, but he nevertheless took it, claiming that it could assist police investigations,” Niyo told court.
He said the case had severely affected his life, adding that following his arrest, he lost contact with his family and his child, who was barely eight months old at the time.
Niyo maintained that he had no involvement in the arson and asked the court to acquit him.
Speaking to journalists after the hearing, defence lawyer Sam Ssekyewa said the defence had closed its case after presenting the two accused persons as witnesses.
“Our defence team has presented its witnesses after court ruled that the accused persons had a case to answer, and we have now closed our case. What remains is for the assessors and the court to determine the matter, which has been before court for more than seven years,” Ssekyewa said.
Justice Nakintu adjourned the case to September 8, when court is expected to sum up the matter with the assessors.
The accused persons were further remanded to Masaka Main Prison.
According to the amended charge sheet, Mugarura, Niyo and other suspects still at large are accused of committing the offences on November 11, 2018, at St Bernard’s Secondary School Maanya in Rakai District.
The prosecution alleges that the accused persons caused the dormitory fire that killed Remigious Tamale and nine other students and left several others injured.
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