Behind The Scenes: A Journalist’s Vantage Point of MV Templar Tragedy

November 24, 2018 came as any other day but will never be forgotten by those who lost their loved ones and to those who now live to narrate their narrow escape from capsized MV Templar.

The boat with over 100 revealers aboard capsized in Lake Victoria near Mutima Country Haven in Mpatta Sub County in Mukono District sending shock and grief to the entire country. Many people have since termed it the tragedy of the year.  

To a journalist, whenever tragedy befall then duty calls. That day your blogger had been in deep in villages of Namayumba for an interview as revealers were setting to board a ‘ship’ to an exclusive party at K-Palm Beach. By 9:00pm social media was awash with posts indicating that boat had capsized.  

“Uganda Radio Network is a newsroom of newsroom so we should get it (information) fast or better,” these words are repeatedly emphasized by the ‘High Command’ (URN editor in chief). The phrase translates that whenever something happens the foot soldier nearby is expected to act swiftly.   

Having seen the social media posts I interested myself in finding out what could have happened. My mind turned to a collogue, Henry Lubulwa, who has a good experience of the lake and we had a brief chat.

Was it Earthwise Amaani or any other boat? We had to find out as more information kept flowing. With his experience in the field, he figured out the basic information which could later lay a foundation for our investigations into the tragedy.

The sunset on Sunday always find me in church but this time I just passed by it as I headed for Ggaba Landing Site where the ill-fate boat had begun her voyage from. 

Many people whose friends and relatives were feared dead had already gathered at the gate seeking entry into the beach. In fact, some people thought that the survivors had been brought back to this place.

Here we wanted to establish a number of issues ranging on the vessel’s manifest among others. While there, we interacted with a number of people most of which had seen the vessel moments before it embarked on its last voyage.

The fishermen had always seen MV Templar; they knew what had taken place on the fateful day. There accounts would later give a basis of our probe into what could have went wrong.  

While in an editorial meeting, it was decided that a team from URN would go on an expedition to retrace the last voyage of MV Templar. I was not named on that team.

However, later on Wednesday morning I was summoned. The team was to comprise five people, including Big Ronnie, Dear Jeanne, Jacob Mugalasi and Lubulwa, the team leader.

After the tragedy, many people felt unsafe to travel on water. I remember someone at the office asking me whether I was ready to risk my life. “after the boat accident, I don’t think that I can move on water. Are you ready to risk your life?” he asked. I can understand how he felt but still I wondered whether he knew the meaning of the word accident!

It was shining bright and the waters were cold as our team boarded into a boat. At Ggaba landing site, it was business as usual with a few groups of youth discussing the tragedy.

Big Ronnie was to stay at KK-beach to coordinate the team with the high command. Before boarding, everyone asked the coxswain whether he had enough life jackets for us. We also did a physical inspection of the boat! Lubulwa was however confident and calm, no wonder, he was raised in the islands of Kalangala. “Don’t waste time, let us board guys,” he said.    

This was not my first day to travel by water but I must confess that it was my first time to wear a life jacket.  Our voyage was generally calm, we really enjoyed.

Our coxswain with his two colleagues took us through the trails of MV Templar while narrating what happened at what point. At times we could briefly turn into to general discussion concerning water transport still.

When we reached the spot were mv Templar capsized from, silence occupied us! At this point all I visualized, in my memory, how the victims could have fought to save life as other were drowning.

From there we continued to K-Palm where the ill-fated boat was heading. On arrival, everybody wondered whether such a place existed. The scenery was perfect. Personally, I felt nature speaking to me if not all of us.

On the beach, we found only three young men, they were also mourning the death of their employees Michael and Sheila Bisase commonly known as the Templars who also died on the capsized boat.

The young men shared we us on several issues. It was from there that we learnt that the party which the revelers were going to attend had been organized by the Prince David Wasajja, brother to Kabaka Ronald Muwenda Mutebi among other issues which we later exclusively reported.

The evening found us at Mutima Beach, the police and army marines were still struggling to retrieve the wreckage of MV Templar. We had to spend the night there to embark on our ‘mission’ the following day. The night was quiet and we spent much of it planning for the next day and chatting before we slept.

On a Thursday I woke up from a tent, I had last sleep in one during my days at the college while I was still a scout. A scene of city socialite Bryan White waking up the officers to embark on salvage operation opened up the day.

After holding a meeting with team at the head officer, we started that day’s activities. We interacted with the residents who narrated to us a lot. Among which was their traditional believe on what could have caused the accident.

That evening the boat was retrieved. Our earlier plan was to return to Kampala using road transport but we agreed to use a boat after realizing we were to arrive late in the night had we used the Mukono route.

At this moment, I can authoritatively say that the URN team backed with financial and advisory support from our supervisors covered the tragedy in 3D. I believe that we had missed the ‘first’ bit of the story but we could give our subscribers (and the public) the ‘better’ part which indeed we did.

In the end I can say that the happening left a question in my head, a question on how a journalist in this era can differ from any other Tom, Dick and Harry, reporting the issues in line with event

CHRISTOPHER KISEKKA

Urn Bureau Chief, Wakiso

walkisekris@gmail.com