Simon Peter Esaku
30 June 2009
Kampala — AN old woman and her two grandchildren sustained burns when lightning struck their grass-thatched hut in Morulem sub-county in Abim district.
Veronica Angura, 60, Silver Ocan, 9 and Charles Dickens Omenya, 5, were sleeping when they were struck at 10:00pm last week. Their house was burnt to ashes.
"It was a downpour with lightning and thunder," said a 70-year-old neighbour, Timothy Okullo.
Okullo said Veronica's left cheek was severely burnt.
She lost everything including money from the sale of food she received from the World Vision and the World Food Programme and from waragi sales.
The boys, both in Primary One, collapsed in the house and were rescued by the neighbours.
Ocan, who was burnt on the head, together with Omenya, received local treatment at their mother, Sidonia Achieng's home near the accident scene.
The fear-stricken widow slaughtered a goat in front of the ruins in the morning. "She did it to fulfill the Labwor tradition," Okullo explained.
This is the third time lightning strikes homes in the village in six years. In 2003 and 2005, lightning struck homes but nobody was killed, an area resident said.
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