Jinja: On the evening of Sunday, January 26, 2025, Mr. Isaac Kintu, a Jinja-based reporter attached to NTV Uganda, had a harrowing experience when he was briefly detained and forced to delete footage he had captured at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital. The footage documented an emergency situation that unfolded after a lightning strike injured 12 inmates from Kirinya Prison.
About 50 inmates had gathered for prayers under a tree in the men’s remand area at the government prison when they were struck by lightning. The injured inmates were rushed to the hospital, prompting journalists, including Mr. Kintu, to cover the crisis.
Kintu was held for nearly two hours at the hospital’s police post and accused of covering the incident without authorization.
“It was initially normal when I started filming the proceedings at the health facility, but suddenly, I noticed people surrounding me. They wanted to handcuff me before ordering me to delete the footage I had recorded,” Mr. Kintu recounted, describing the disturbing events that followed his assignment.
The journalist initially declined to comment further, stating that he had reported the matter to his supervisors for follow-up. However, he later told Busoga Today on Tuesday that “I felt psychologically tortured because I was legally doing my work of documenting the facts about the situation, which had already circulated on social media in the afternoon.”
The incident has raised questions about press freedom in Uganda, with Kintu’s detention highlighting the challenges faced by journalists in the country.
The frustrated reporter was accompanied by his colleague, Racheal Wambuzi, a journalist with the Uganda Radio Network (URN), who condemned the actions of the security personnel at the government hospital and the prison.
Wambuzi said, “We were surrounded by the hospital OC, Andrew Ocho, who confiscated Isaac’s camera, claiming we were not authorized to cover the inmates. We felt helpless until we started making various calls. He was eventually told to delete the recordings and was released without any charges.”
Prisons spokesperson Frank Baine confirmed the incident, assuring the public that the injured inmates were receiving care and recovering steadily.
Emergency response teams, including the Uganda Red Cross Society (URCS) and private ambulance services, rushed to the scene to transport the injured inmates to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital.
Hospital staff worked tirelessly to treat the injured inmates, with some requiring urgent follow-up care to recover fully from the effects of the lightning strike.
Baine, however, called for calm, emphasizing that the situation was under control and that there was no need for families of inmates to panic.
A medical worker at the hospital, whose identity could not be disclosed, acknowledged that the situation was overwhelming, stressing that serious attention was given to casualties who were critically injured.
Due to the high number of injured inmates, some patients had to be relocated to the floor to accommodate the influx of emergency cases.
The lightning strike incident has raised concerns about the safety and well-being of inmates at Kirinya Prison.
The injured inmates are currently receiving treatment at Jinja Hospital, with some requiring urgent follow-up care to fully recover from the effects of the lightning strike.
Our efforts to get a comment from the authorities at the hospital were unsuccessful.
