Police report says Nakanyonyi food was contaminated, not poisoned

UGANDA: An investigative police report on the suspected food poisoning that left hundreds of students at Nakanyonyi Senior Secondary School in Mukono District hospitalized has revealed that it was contamination in the food that caused stomach dizziness that day.

The incident which happened last month on July 20, saw more than 150 students admitted to neighbouring hospitals, although no fatality was recorded.

Following the incident, police investigative officers from Kampala Metropolitan and Mukono Police Division collected samples of the food the students ate and took them to the Government Analytical Laboratories for testing in order to establish what caused the mass stomach uneasiness.

Now in an update on the police report yesterday afternoon, the KMP spokesperson SP Patrick Onyango said that according to findings, the food was contaminated and not intentionally poisoned by malicious individuals as it was earlier claimed.

“Our report shows that nobody put poison in the food. The food instead had contamination in it,” Mr Onyango said.

Wikipedia defines Food contamination as the presence of unwanted and potentially harmful substances and materials on food products and raw materials.

Management of the school said during the incident which started on the night of July 19, after students had supper was later followed by persistent stomachaches from the affected individuals.

The Headteacher, Mr Amos Barongo says on that same evening, the students were given some painkillers but their health deteriorated on the following day July 20, leading to their hospitalization at Naggalama, Mukono and Kayunga hospitals.

Mr Barongo says the school together with authorities are therefore going to destroy the remaining food which is part of that the report found to be contaminated

He however decries that the school now stares at a loss of shs7.5m, a value he says if for the food that was remaining in the store.

“We had stocked beans worth Shs6.2m and maize worth Shs1.2m,” Barongo says, adding further that; “We are on course of complying with what the report found out and recommended.”

One of the renovations Barongo suggested is renovating the food store by making it clean and fumigating it before they can restock for the third term.

The contaminated food is going to be jointly destroyed by the National Environmental Management Authority, Uganda National Bureau of Standards and Uganda Police Force.