A student of Gakoni Secondary School, identified by The New Times team as Jacqueline Umutoni is helpless in Rwamagana Hospital after sustaining severe head injuries in a motor accident. A medical official at the hospital, who talked to us on condition of anonymity, told us that Umutoni sustained the injuries when a car in which she and four other occupants were travelling to Kigali collided with another vehicle at around 3 a.m. According to sources, two men from Kigali allegedly picked the three girls (students) from school disguising themselves as relatives. They first took them to Jambo Beach (Gahini) where they made them drink themselves into a stupor up to dawn and then arranged to take them to Kigali. The New Times only identified one of the men who was allegedly involved as Frederick Bizimana, a Kigali City resident. At the hospital, the helpless girl is unconscious, with practically little help from either the school or the parents. Only a girl who claims to be her elder sister seats beside her, reading school notes. Gakoni Secondary School is located in the eastern region near Kiramuruzi and is headed by one Peter Claver Kabanda. He has been its long-time head teacher from the time it was still located in Nyagatare (Muvumba). “Our children are in great danger. Imagine such young girls drinking and moving with strange men the whole night. We parents are in trouble. The parents expect this girl to be in school, but look, she is lying unconscious in hospital,” complained a middle-aged nurse who was on duty at the hospital. Mutoni stays with her mother in Gasabo district and she was involved in the accident while going to Kigali. “The students had permission to go home and prepare for their final exams as usual. I was also surprised when I heard that they were involved in an accident at such an awkward hour. I will have to travel to the hospital myself to see how I can assist,” the headmaster of the school said. Some people The New Times talked to randomly on the issue were incensed and called upon school teachers to be more responsible for the children they are given to groom. “Security officials should bring to book these men who picked these students from school to go and use them disregarding their education and future,” said a visibly angry woman, adding, “This is an intolerable criminal act.” Others suggested that those who dumped the girl and left her for dead should also be brought to justice. Ends
