Grief has engulfed Bugisa village in Budalangi following the drowning of a Standard 8 pupil in a dam on Tuesday.
Jonathan Were, 18, was bathing with his two cousins at the dam at nearby Madinda village when the tragedy occurred.
Bunyala East senior chief Tom Mudonga said the body was retrieved. The dam was built in the 1950s.
Mudonga asked parents to discourage their children from bathing or swimming in dams. He warned that legal action would be taken against the parents who will fail to heed the directive.
Were’s father, Alfonse Were, said they returned home from a fishing expedition in Lake Victoria with his son at about 11am before the boy left a few hours later.
The dam is popularly known as Lake Dofiko.
“Jonathan had accompanied me to Lake Victoria for fishing and we returned home together, but shortly after lunch, I received news that he (Jonathan) had drowned while bathing with his two cousins,” Alfonse said.
The man rushed to the dam alongside his eldest son after the sad news and they both retrieved Jonathan’s body.
Officers from Port Victoria police station picked the body and took it to Port Victoria Subcounty Hospital Mortuary.