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There are some stories that stop you in your tracks. This is one of them.
On Thursday, four children were killed at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Programme school in Makindye Division, Kampala. Three boys and one girl, all between the ages of two and three years old. Their names were Gideon Eteku, aged two, Kaise Alungat, aged two, Ignatius Sserwange, aged three, and Ryan Odeke, aged two. Uganda Observer Four children who woke up that morning and went to school, as they did every day.
The suspect, identified by police as Christopher Okello Onyu, a 34-year-old man from Nwoya district in northern Uganda, had visited the school two days earlier, reportedly seeking admission for his own child. He paid the fees and was told to return. Uganda Observer He did return, and what followed is almost impossible to put into words.
Eyewitnesses say he disguised himself as a parent, first entered the school offices where he briefly engaged the administrator, then stepped back outside, locked the gate, and began attacking the children one after another. WNCT He was armed with knives. Fourteen children were present at the compound that morning.
Video footage aired by local broadcaster NTV showed parents weeping outside. Police fired into the air to disperse an angry crowd that had gathered near the school, apparently trying to lynch the suspect. The Messenger That instinct is understandable, even if it cannot be the answer.
What makes this story even more chilling is what came after the arrest. Onyu reportedly warned that even if he were killed, similar attacks would still be carried out against Ugandans. Uganda Observer The motive, as of now, remains unknown. But that statement alone should force a serious national conversation.
This is not just a crime story. It is a mirror being held up to several things at once.
It is a question about the security of our children in schools, nurseries, and daycare centres across the country. Most of these facilities have no guards, no secure gates, no verification system for adults who walk in. Any determined person can enter. That has to change, and it cannot wait for another tragedy to make it urgent.
It is a question about mental health in Uganda. We do not talk about this enough. The circumstances that push a person to arm themselves and attack toddlers are not ordinary. There is a crisis of untreated trauma, undiagnosed illness, and unaddressed suffering in this country, and we keep meeting it with silence until it erupts in the most horrifying ways possible.
It is also a question about community. Who knew this man? Who noticed something was wrong? Were there signs that nobody acted on?
Gideon, Kaise, Ignatius, and Ryan deserved to grow up. Their parents, who sent them to school that Thursday morning as any normal parent does, deserve not just justice but a genuine commitment from this country that their children did not die in vain.
Demand better security at your children’s schools. Ask what protocols exist for visitor access. And let’s start talking honestly about mental health in Uganda, not as a taboo, but as the urgent public health matter it has always been.