The Victim of Kyere Ginnery fracas is among the candidates completing their Primary Leaving examinations today.
Robert Okurut, 15, a Primary Seven pupil of Moruatyang Primary School was injured during the fracas where over a dozen people got injured during the fracas. He has been in hospital at Kumi Orthopedic Hospital.
The chaos started after MP Elijah Okupa, who is also the chairperson of Teso Cooperative Union-TCU, convened a meeting with the residents of Kyere to discuss the development of the union and some of its assets are in Kyere.
Residents found out that part of Okupa’s team was trying to break into Kyere Ginnery. The ginnery was built in 1936 and is one of TCU’s assets. Access to it has been limited because minerals like mercury are thought to be there.
This angered the residents who were at the meeting. They demanded to know from the MP why part of his entourage was trying to break into the ginnery without their knowledge. But before any response from the MP, the residents turned rowdy and started hurling stones at the TCU team and the MP.
Patrick Okabe, the Serere County MP has continuously condemned the actions of the group, saying although the property in question belongs to the TCU, it was prudent that the chairperson should have informed the area leaders about their visit.
“The boy from Kyere who was short during the Kyere Ginnery fracas is doing PLE exams in pain. We will pursue justice for this boy until he is compensated and given a future. Nothing has been done about the one who pulled the trigger. But justice will reign,” Mr Okabe told TNN
While speaking to media after the incident in October, 2022 the Minister for Fisheries Hellen Adoa said that, at the time of the incident, the boy was returning home from a clinic where he had gone for malaria treatment, only to be hit by a stray bullet.
The residents and leaders are accusing TCU for trying to steal mercury and other precious metals that were allegedly buried in the building by British colonialists in the 1930s.
Okurut on the otherhand is optimistic that he will pass the PLE papers despite being in pain.