The quiet streets of Kikulu Zone in Kikaaya Parish, Kawempe Division, Kampala, were shattered on the afternoon of 10 November 2026 when four female pupils from Ta-Aliim Primary School and Quran Memorisation Centre collapsed and died under circumstances that police immediately flagged as suspected poisoning.
The girls, ranging in age from nine to eleven, had returned to classes only days earlier after a short holiday break linked to Primary Leaving Examinations. By early Wednesday morning the following day, grief had engulfed their families, the school compound had been sealed off by crime-scene officers, and the institution’s head teacher, Muzahim Ssuuna, had been taken into custody to assist with inquiries.
Ta-Aliim Primary School and Quran Memorisation Centre sits on a modest plot along Kisaasi Kikulu Zone off Ssebagala Road. Its large green-and-white signboard, visible from the roadside, bears the school’s motto in English— “Knowledge and unity is our strength”—alongside Arabic script identifying it as a centre for both formal primary education and Quranic memorisation.
Photographs circulating on 11 November showed the compound partially cordoned, a police vehicle parked near unfinished brick buildings with corrugated-iron roofs, and officers in uniform speaking with local residents. The school serves children from the surrounding densely populated neighbourhoods of Kisaasi and Kawempe, where many families send daughters to combine secular primary schooling with Islamic religious instruction.
Police spokesperson SP Racheal Kawala of Kampala Metropolitan Police issued a formal statement on 11 November confirming the deaths. Preliminary findings placed the time of the fatalities at approximately 1400 hours on 10 November.
Three of the pupils died at their respective family homes after being sent away from school once symptoms appeared; the fourth, nine-year-old Nabeta Failuzi, a Primary Three pupil, died while receiving treatment at Kasangati Hospital. The other three were identified as eleven-year-old Nakitende Mariam (Primary Four), eleven-year-old Kiruta Rwahim (Primary Five), and eleven-year-old Nasuna Nusufa (Primary Four). All four were female pupils enrolled at the same institution.
Kawala emphasised that postmortem examinations would be required to establish the precise medical cause of death and that detectives from Kira Road Division were already interviewing staff, pupils, and relatives.
Local accounts gathered by journalists at the scene and reported by multiple Ugandan outlets point to a possible common source. Former Kawempe mayor and area resident Mr Ssebaggala told reporters that one of the pupils had returned from the short PLE-related break carrying oranges. She reportedly shared the fruit with classmates in Primary Two, Three and Four.
Later that day several children began vomiting and feeling unwell. School staff, according to the same account, arranged for the affected pupils to be taken home. By the next morning four had died and at least one other child remained in critical condition in hospital. Forensic teams later recovered orange peels from the school premises and took them for laboratory analysis.
Police have stated that it is not yet confirmed how many pupils consumed the fruit—estimates circulating locally place the number around eight—and that toxicology results will be decisive.
The arrest of head teacher Muzahim Ssuuna was confirmed by Kampala Metropolitan Police and reported by the Daily Monitor. Officers took him in to help reconstruct the sequence of events: when the oranges arrived, how they were distributed, what symptoms staff observed, and why the children were sent home rather than taken directly to a medical facility.
Crime-scene teams spent the afternoon of 11 November photographing the school, collecting potential exhibits, and speaking with remaining pupils and teachers. Yellow police tape appeared around parts of the compound while neighbours gathered outside the gate. Parents of the deceased began congregating at the city mortuary in Mulago, awaiting the release of bodies after postmortems.
One father, Hassan Magumba, whose eleven-year-old daughter was among the dead, told local radio that the child had been brought home around 1 p.m. already ill and was pronounced dead at a nearby clinic shortly afterwards. Other relatives described frantic efforts to reach hospitals only to learn that three of the girls had already died at home.
The dual nature of the institution—standard primary curriculum plus intensive Quran memorisation—adds layers to the community’s response. Many families in Kawempe Division value such schools for the religious grounding they provide alongside formal education. The sudden deaths of four girls who had been reciting Quranic verses only days earlier have therefore struck at both educational and spiritual levels.
Local religious leaders and community elders have called for calm while demanding transparent answers. School staff, now under police scrutiny, have so far limited public statements. The institution’s telephone numbers listed on its signboard have reportedly been busy with inquiries from anxious parents of other pupils.
