Visa Oshwal pool attendant detained after Grade Two pupil drowned

A swimming coach at Visa Oshwal Primary School was on Friday arraigned in court under a miscellaneous application and detained for 7 days.

The court was told that Geoffrey Juma Opala was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of negligence of duty after an 11-year-old pupil at the school was found to have drowned in the pool.

”The respondent is believed to have neglected his official duty as a swimming pool attendant at Visa Oshwal Primary School where a body of a Grade 2 pupil namely Abdikarim Ali aged 11 years was found dead in swimming pool,” read the application.

The court was told that Opala was captured on CCTV footage on duty when the deceased walked towards the swimming pool before his body was later discovered.

The court further heard that Opala intentionally neglected his duty to prevent the child who was captured on camera passing him and walking towards the pool.

“That the respondent after being pressed by the members of the family to state where the deceased was, he denied having seeing him and later he alleged to have searched the swimming pool and recovered the body in the absence of the relatives and the school staff,” stated the application.

The late Iilyaas Abdikarim Ali Mohamud was reported missing on Tuesday evening when his father went to pick him up from school.

His body was later found inside the school's swimming pool on Wednesday morning.