House of Prayers Ministries International senior pastor Aloysius Bujjingo and seasoned political journalist Peter Kibazo have blasted government for closing Ggaba Daycare and sister schools after a one Christopher Okello Oonyu attacked the school and stabbed four toddlers to death last week.
Last week, State minister in charge of Higher Education in the Ministry of Education and Sports, Dr. Chrysostom Muyingo issued a directive closing the schools upon a guided tour to comfort the school management to assure parents and the entire public that the government which he serves is with them.
The minister said that the opening of the schools will be communicated on notice after the investigations and directed parents to pick their children as they await the daycare management to provide a detailed report on the circumstances that resulted into the attack and death of the innocent children.
Police named the killed children as Gideon Eteku, Kaise Alungat, Ignatius Sserwange and Ryan Odeke all two years old and on Monday, minister Balaam Barugahare the state Minister for Youths and Children Affairs, the school management and parents organised a memorial service to pray for the deceased.
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While leading Easter prayers at his church at Makerere Kikoni, Pastor Bujjingo condemned the decision of closing the schools explaining that the decision is going to hit the parents who have already paid schools fee for their children from daycare to secondary school hard.
“After the minister announced their position on closuring the school, responses were made on social media especially on X, reminding him that at his schools, children died under unclear circumstances but his school was not closed,” Bujjingo said.
He noted that the judgement of closing the schools was not made fairly.
He told the congregation that the decision only benefits the attacker who was paid to murder the innocent kids so that the government closes the schools.
He praised police and other security agencies for putting up a spirited fight to save the attacker from being killed by highly charged people noting that the opportunity has now come to grill the suspect so that he reveals the reason why he attacked the school and killed the innocent souls.
Bujjingo wondered why primary and secondary school sections were closed when the incident only happens at the daycare section.
He asked minister Muyingo to be careful while making a decision that will affect other individuals without thinking about what the public think given that a similar incident once happened to him also.
It should be remembered that since 2020, children at minister Muyingo’s owned Seeta Schools have been dying at different school campus under unclear circumstances but police has always claimed that reports detailing death of those children are shared with parents and the entire public is not concerned.
The minister closed the daycare school, Maranatha Christian primary school and Maranatha High School all managed and run by Ggaba Community Church.
Journalist Kibazo was also not happy with the way the government reacted after the incident.
Kibazo wondered why the president had by Sunday not yet issued any statement concerning the attack and comforting the school, parents and the entire community.
“Of all people with power in this government, they decided to send my poor friend Dr Muyingo with orders of closing the schools. Where is the President, where is the Vice president, where is the Prime Minister and other Senior ministers!” Kibazo wondered.
He added that the situation at Ggaba school reminds him about former Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura who always stood with those in grief after such incidents happened especially during the wave of assassinating top government officials, religious leaders and people felt that government and other leaders also cared about them and what they are going through.
He further remembered the days when president Museveni was still strong, and in such incidents, he would visit the ground with his personal notebook, a pen and recorded statements from locals himself and by the time he left the scene of crime, people were very sure that the issue was going to be handled seriously.
“The management of that school survived arrest because the school was not run under a Muslim religion. Because we were used (to the narrative) that its always terrorists operating under the Allied Defence Forces (ADF) who are behind such attacks and the first suspects were to be Muslims,” Kibazo said.
According to the school lawyer Stanely Okecho, the institution started as a rehabilitation centre for malnourished children but later expanded into a big institution educating needy children through the sponsorship of Africa Renewal ministries
