Kabale student hit by ‘stray’ bullet as police quell riot at St Barnabas SS.

KABALE, UGANDA: A senior three student of St Barnabas senior secondary school in Katuna town council in Kabale district, western Uganda is nursing a bullet wound after being hit by a stray bullet fired by the police on Friday.

Bright Muhumuza was shot as police attempted to quell a students’ riot that erupted after one of the students identified as Jim accused his senior five colleague; Athlem Ninzeyimana on Thursday morning of the theft of his memory card, phone battery, a book, and avocado – all valued at Shs 32,000 from his case.

It is alleged that other students descended on Ninzeyimana and started beating him so as to compel him to confess to the theft and reveal where the missing property is, a charge he vehemently denied.

As a result, Ninzeyimana brought the matter to the attention of the students’ disciplinary committee which decided to conduct a search and discovered that Jim, was instead, the one behind the disappearance of some of Ninzeyimana’s property.

The disciplinary committee cleared Ninzeyimana and instead punished Jim and other students who participated in the mob justice. This angered a section of senior five students leading to clashes in the school.

Management tried to calm down the students who had started vandalizing student property in vain prompting them to call in the police. The officers first attempted to talk to the students in vain, which prompted them to open fire, injuring Muhumuza in the process.

President Museveni has previously castigated the police for always hiding behind the ‘stray’ bullet excuse, saying by the time the bullet is fired from a gun, it means that it was meant for somebody.