By Catherine Apolot
It has been almost a week since a boat capsized on Lake Victoria in Mpatta Sub-county, Mukono District.
Watchdog bring you some facts you should know about the tragedy;
1. MV Templar capsized just a few metres away from Mutima beach in Mukono. 33 bodies have so far been retrieved from the lake and 27 people rescued alive, according to a combined rescue unit of the Police and Army .
2.The owners of the boat, Templar and Sheila Bisase were onboard the ill-fated cruise. They never made it to their other business venture, the KPalm Beach which was due to be launched that day.
3. According to UPDF Deputy Spokesperson Lt. Col Deo Akiiki, they don’t expect any more survivors after days the boat spent submerged in the lake.
4. Before the tragedy, MV Templar used to dock at Ggaba Landing Site to take partiers to KPalm beach every weekend.
5. The boat cruise had been marketed as an end of year boat cruise and attracted several middle class passengers, socialites and celebrities including Buganda kingdom prince David Wasajja, artist Iryn Namubiru, businessman Freeman Kiyimba among others.
6. It took government almost five days to retrieve and anchor the killer boat on the shores of Mutima Beach.
7. The ill fated boat was overloaded. Its standard capacity is 50 passengers but reports from survivors claim there were more than 100 people on board.
8. By the time of the incident, MV Templar was under maintenance; it had a hole underneath it. Also, it was operating illegally since the Ministry of Works had not inspected it to license, according to Zurah Ganyana, the police spokesperson for the rescue mission.
9. This is was the second accident to occur on Lake Victoria in the period of two months. The first accident occurred on September 22 when a Tanzanian ferry, MV Nyarere capsized leading to death of 225 people.
10. After the tragedy President Yoweri Museveni ordered for electronic registration and monitoring of all boats.
“This is why, apart from the anti-bad fishing campaign which the UPDF has been carrying out for some months now on the lakes, the government has also ordered the electronic registration and monitoring of all the boats so that we can know who is where on the lake and why,” said Museveni.
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