Mityana: Senior Two student gives birth, strangles baby to death

Police in the central region district of Mityana are investigating circumstances under which a Senior Two female student at Elites College-Mityana delivered a baby and strangled it to death.

The incident occurred on Saturday morning at a private clinic located at Kikumabogo Cell in Ttamu Division in Mityana Municipality.

According to the neighbours, a student (names withheld) went to Nats Medical Centre claiming that she was feeling pain in the stomach. When the nurses attended to her, the pain worsened and she requested to move out to ease herself in the pit latrine which the nurses accepted.

“When the nurses waited for the patient and she failed to return, one of them decided to go and check on her, but was shocked to hear her screaming inside the pit latrine at the clinic. The nurse called her colleagues and the neighbours, who decided to kick the door of pit latrine, only to discover that she had already given birth and thrown the baby in the pit. The nurses took her back to the ward and called police to try and retrieve the baby,” Ms Jessica Namukwaya, a resident said on Saturday.

She said Police rushed to the scene, but unfortunately the baby was already dead.

“The police officers cleaned the body, and took it to Mityana General Hospital mortuary pending postmortem,” Ms Namukwaya added.

Staff at Nats Medical Centre declined to comment on the matter.

But Ms Florence Nakimbugwe, an administrator at Elites College told reporters that as a school they didn't detect the student’s pregnancy even though the school conducts regular pregnancy tests.

“For sure, we were surprised to learn that one of our students was pregnant. This is an eye opener and we are going to boost our vigilance and ensure that similar incidents don’t occur in future,” she said.