A 16-year-old girl was dragged into Lake Victoria and killed by a crocodile on Thursday evening while fetching water at Kyankolokolo Landing Site in Kalangala District, in what residents say is the latest in a growing pattern of deadly attacks linked to lack of clean water and rising wildlife pressure.
By Saturday morning , more than 42 hours later, her body had not been recovered, deepening fear and anguish across the village.
Namirembe Namirimu, a Senior Two student who had travelled from school in Entebbe for holidays, was drawing water when the crocodile struck, her mother Nalongo Nalubaale said.
“She had to go deeper into the lake to be able to fetch the water clearly, and that’s where the crocodile hit her,” Nalubaale told Monitor, standing where residents continued searching for any sign of her daughter.
According to Nalubaale, the reptile resurfaced three times with the girl still trapped before vanishing for the last time.
“It popped up its head again and again, but the fourth time we realized it couldn’t return with the child,” she narrated.
Fishermen later pointed her to a site where a crocodile was believed to keep its offspring, but they found no trace of the girl. By morning, she added, the animal had moved its young.
Nalubaale urged the Uganda Wildlife Authority to remove dangerous crocodiles along the island shores.
“We keep on seeing them each day without any trouble, but now they have begun taking one of us,” she said.
She described her daughter as a hardworking and peaceful teenager saying: “She has been a promising child doing the hard work like men. You couldn’t find her in a fight with anyone.”
Local residents said Namirimu had finished fetching water and may have been swimming near the shoreline, while others blamed persistent myths encouraging children to believe the predators were harmless.
A known footballer who played with men’s teams in both Kalangala and Entebbe, her death has shaken young athletes.
Village Defence Secretary Walinbwa Abdallah said the tragedy highlighted government failure to provide safe water.
“If we had tap water the child would be easy to watch over and would never go to the lake,” he noted.
“Crocodiles are now increasing in population… Yet we don’t have any clean water source,” he added.
Village chairperson Alex Lwankulanga said crocodiles, once reliant on livestock along the lakeshore, were increasingly preying on humans.
The Kalangala Resident District Commissioner, Fred Badda, said the district had contacted UWA and was working to secure clean water for residents.
Experts point to shrinking fish stocks, illegal fishing and pollution for intensifying human-wildlife conflict.
Johnson Thembo of the Uganda Wildlife Education Center previously said destruction of breeding grounds was pushing crocodiles toward “soft targets.”
Since last year, more than six people have been killed and at least eight crocodiles relocated in Kalangala, but residents say new crocodiles continue moving in.
(daily monitor)