Wayne Lumbasi
A devastating road accident in eastern Uganda has claimed the lives of at least 20 school children and their school’s director after their bus overturned on the return leg of an educational field trip. The crash occurred at approximately 8:00 PM local time on Thursday, July 16, 2026, in Chekwatit Village, KawowoSub-county, located in the mountainous Kapchorwa District.
The victims, all elementary pupils from King David Junior School in Ndejje, near Kampala, were returning from a highly anticipated study tour at the scenic Sipi Falls. According to preliminary reports from the Uganda Police Force, the driver of the Isuzu bus lost control of the vehicle while descending a steep gradient on Chekwatit Hill. The bus veered off the road, struck a large roadside boulder, and overturned, leaving the vehicle severely mangled on its side with the roof entirely sheared off.
Authorities have confirmed 21 fatalities from the crash, including 20 young pupils and one adult, identified as Mr. Tadeo Ssekade, the founder and director of King David Junior School. Dozens of other passengers sustained serious injuries in the wreckage. Emergency services and local residents rushed survivors to several regional medical facilities, with nine children currently in critical condition at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital and another 19 receiving urgent treatment across Kaserem and Bulambuli health centres. The bodies of the deceased have been moved to the Kapchorwa Mortuary for postmortem examinations and identification by grieving families.
This tragedy has intensified nationwide concern over public and school transit safety in Uganda, coming on the heels of a series of high-profile accidents involving student transport.
According to police data, road crashes have steadily risen over the past year, resulting in thousands of preventable deaths. Traffic authorities attribute the vast majority of these incidents to a lethal mix of speeding, challenging mountainous terrain, and mechanical failures on poorly maintained vehicles, prompting renewed pressure from safety advocates for stricter regulations on school-sanctioned travel.
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