Senior Six candidate hangs self after ‘eating’ shs1.2m fees

IGANGA, UGANDA: Police in Busoga East region are investigating how Denis Tuke, 20, a Senior Six Candidate at Bukoyo Secondary School in Iganga was found hanging dead inside a dormitory with only two weeks left to begin UACE final exams.

Tuke who was among the candidates expected to sit for the S.6 UNEB exams allegedly killed himself after school management asked him to clear his dues amounting to shs 1.2 million for the second and third (current) term.

The deceased upon discovering that he had misappropriated the money, he wrote a note informing the school authorities that he had been given fees but mismanaged it, before hanging himself dead with a mosquito net inside the school dormitory.

Tuke’s lifeless body was discovered by students who had gone back to the dormitory for lunch and informed the school authorities about it, and the latter alerted police about it.

“He wrote a letter apologising to the school for eating the fees and as he went back to the dormitory, he got a mosquito net and hanged himself,” Busoga East Police Spokesperson Ms Diana Nandaula said confirming the report.

“Preliminary information indicates that the student hanged himself but as Police, we have to go on with investigations to find out the real cause of death, and therefore, the body is currently at Nakavule Hospital in Iganga district for the postmortem,” Ms Nandaula added in a phone conversation with this reporter.

The Iganga District Education Officer Mr Baker Kasadhakawo made regrets of the incident and urged parents to stop giving school fees to children for banking because money is so “tempting”.

Ms Kasadhakawo also urged school managers to devise means of reaching to parents when situations involving fees misuse by students arise so that an agreement can be reached instead of sending them home.

Management of Bukoyo SS refused to comment on this report and said everything was in the hands of police to carryout investigations on the incident.