KAMPALA/KIGALI – The management of Trinity Bus Company, a Rwandan public transport firm, has called for a thorough probe to establish the circumstances in which one of its cross-border buses from Kigali on Tuesday caught fire in central Uganda.
Joseph Tulya, Katango regional police spokesperson said that the Rwandan registered Trinity bus burst into flames at Buwama along the Masaka-Kampala Highway – with passengers escaping unhurt but their belongings burnt to ashes.
The bus registration number RAD 644G with 50 passengers on board was traveling from capital Kigali to Ugandan capital Kampala.
“When it reached the place near Buwama police checkpoint, smoke started coming out and eventually it caught fire,” said Tulya.
“All these passengers managed to escape without any injury. But all their properties got burnt in the bus,” the police spokesman added.
In an interview with The New Times, Dodo Twahirwa the Managing Director of Trinity Bus Company said the bus was new and in good condition.
“At least mechanically. It had no problem,” he said adding that “the driver had parked the bus and gone out to respond to a traffic check in Buwama. Coming back into the vehicle, he realized it was so hot and he told the passengers to immediately disembark,” Twahirwa said.
He asked Ugandan authorities to thoroughly investigate the matter without any delay.