By Timothy Okurut & Christine Mirembe
Staff and students alike at Uganda Christian University (UCU) were shocked to learn of the death of Trevor James Byandala, a first year student of Procurement and Logistics Management (BPLM). According to the Guild Government’s X page, Byandala had been reported missing for about two weeks and was later reported dead on the 28th of January. Byandala was reported to have been missing from the university’s premises for more than two weeks, a concern that got his friends to run a flier announcing that he was missing.
Accounts surrounding the cause of his death vary. Byandala is said to have last been seen on the night of the 16th of this month at Casablanca, a bar. According to the proprietor, Mr. Tesfalem Gherathu, he was alerted by the team at the bar that Byandala had come to the bar’s premises between 4am to 5am in the morning while the bar was being closed and he collapsed.
“They told me someone had fainted, I told them to call police, they took him to Mulago and when they reached there they said he had died,” he says.
However, some of Byandala’s friends suggest that he passed away on the night of January 13th and was only declared dead on January 16th. According to the security officers working with Blue Nile Security, the security service provider of the bar, Byandala’s body was found lifeless within one of the washrooms. His body was kept at Mulago hospital’s mortuary as the police made a search for his relatives.
The Police is now carrying out investigations to find out the exact cause of his death. Sources we spoke to say that the CCTV footage from the bar is now with the Criminal Investigative Department of Mukono Main Police Station and the Officer in Charge is due to release updates in regard to the same after reviewing the footage.
The Director of Students Affairs (DOSA), Ms Pamela Tumwebaze has urged students to take care of themselves in and out of campus as their safety, especially outside the university premises is paramount.
