A tragic incident at a coffee factory in Uganda’s central district of Mityana has left three employees dead. The police are currently conducting an investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding their demise.
The victims have been identified as Collins Sseguya (21), James Kimbugwe (19), and Bashir Migala (25), all employees of Zigoti Coffee Works Limited. Their unfortunate deaths are believed to have occurred inside an elevator shaft at the factory.
According to a statement by Racheal Kawala, the Wamala Region Police spokesperson, the distressing incident was reported around midday on a Friday. Musa Mutagwa, the factory’s manager, alerted the Mityana district Police fire station about the tragic situation, stating that three adult males had lost their lives inside the factory’s elevator shaft.
The coffee factory is situated in Zigoti South LC1, Zigoti town council, within Mityana district.
Upon receiving the distressing news, the fire prevention and emergency rescue team from Mityana swiftly responded to the scene and successfully recovered the bodies, as reported by Kawala.
Preliminary findings by the police indicate that at the time of the incident, a coffee processing machine was operational but encountered a malfunction, leading to its shutdown. In an attempt to resolve the issue, one of the employees, James Kimbugwe, descended into the elevator shaft to investigate. Regrettably, he did not return to the surface.
This prompted Collins Sseguya and Bashir Migala to venture down the shaft in an effort to rescue their colleague. Tragically, they too did not emerge from the shaft.
As the investigation into the deaths of these three workers continues, the police suspect that the victims may have succumbed to suffocation due to an oxygen deficiency within the elevator shaft.
Subsequently, the bodies were transported to Mityana District Hospital for postmortem examination, shedding more light on the circumstances surrounding this tragic incident.