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MV Templar, the cruise boat which capsized on Lake Victoria on Saturday, leaving at least 32 revelers aboard dead, with an unspecified number still missing, wasn’t registered with the Ministry of Works and Transport.
Henry Ategeka, the Principal Marine Officer at the Ministry told The Explorer that the ill-fated boat was operating illegally and was not registered or inspected by the Ministry.
“We have been looking for that boat because we knew it was operating illegally. We wanted to inspect it. Unfortunately, the accident happened before we could,” he said.
Asked whether the Ministry has an account of all the vessels on the water bodies, Ategeka said, “We have not yet established the total number of boats and vessels on our water bodies.”
The boat which was reportedly owned by a couple identified as Templar and Sheila Bissase who also perished in the accident, is said to have been substandard and in a dangerous mechanical condition. Tales by the survivors suggest that the boat owner ignored the Captain’s caution in the course of the journey that the boat had developed a mechanical problem.
Senior Superintendent of Police Zura Ganyana, the officer in charge of operations revealed that the boat had been grounded for months but the owner rushed to repair and fix the holes in it shortly before takeoff.
The Ministry of Works and Transport, about two weeks ago, embarked on an exercise of registering all the vessels on water bodies starting with Ggaba Landing Site.
While speaking on NBS television today morning, Former Justice Kanyeihamba blames Marine Police for negligence and says that they were physically present and could only be the remedy to the tragedy.
This accident follows a recent similar tragedy on Lake Victoria- Tanzania where hundreds of business people lost their lives after the vessel they were sailing on capsized.
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