The vessel carrying more than 80 revellers sank during bad weather on Saturday in the latest deadly incident to affect passenger boats on Africa’s largest lake.
“The boat was overloaded and secondly there was bad weather,” the deputy police spokesman, Patrick Onyango, told Reuters, adding the boat was carrying 84 people. “Our rescue team is still on the ground trying to rescue whoever we can find.”
The boat sank a short distance from the shore off Mutima in the Mukono district, close to the capital, Kampala.
We expect [the number of passengers] is beyond the capacity of the boat. It was overloaded and unfortunately people were drunk,” Mugenyi said.
“We suspect the mechanical condition of the boat and the weather contributed to the sinking.”
Kikongo said first responders were among the victims. “Fishermen on two small boats could see that the boat was sinking and went to help,” he said. “People tried to jump on to the boats but they were too many and those sunk. The rescuers died too.”
Nearby residents said the vessel was hired out for parties every weekend and often overloaded with revellers.
The Mutima Country Haven resort had been converted to a triage centre and morgue on Sunday morning, where police were collecting the bodies of victims.
The police spokesman Emilian Kayima said rescue efforts were continuing.
Lake Victoria is the site of many boat disasters. In September, hundreds died when the MV Nyerere passenger ferry sank on the Tanzanian side of Lake Victoria,
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