Four children killed in Kampala day-care stabbing, police arrest suspect at scene and fire warning shots to stop mob justice, routine security costs collide with a crowded childcare market

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Four children aged two and three were killed on Thursday after a knife attack at a day-care centre in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, according to the Uganda Police Force. Police said the suspect, identified as 39-year-old Okello Christopher Onyum, was arrested at the scene at the Ggaba Early Childhood Development Program in the southern neighbourhood of Ggaba. Officers later fired shots into the air, with army support, to disperse a crowd demanding the man be handed over for mob justice, Uganda Observer reported.

The basic sequence is clear, but much else remains unresolved. Police said they are still establishing a motive and examining the suspect’s background. Uganda Observer reported that the man had visited the school two days earlier seeking admission for his child, returned on Thursday, paid admission fees and appeared to leave, then turned back toward a playground seesaw and began stabbing children. The paper said 14 children were on the playground at the time and that the suspect carried three knives; authorities had not immediately clarified whether other children were injured.

The episode also exposes a mundane but consequential question: what “security” means for early-childhood care in a fast-growing city where childcare is increasingly a paid service. Kampala has a large market of small private nurseries and early childhood development centres alongside public provision, often operating with limited staff, improvised facilities, and thin margins. In that environment, screening visitors, controlling entry points, and maintaining adult-to-child ratios are not abstract policy goals but recurring operating costs.

After an attack, governments tend to respond with directives—more guards, more checks, more paperwork—without specifying who pays and how compliance is verified. A centre that relies on fees from parents may be tempted to keep admissions and access friction low, especially when competitors down the street do the same. A public facility may be constrained by staffing rules and budgets decided elsewhere. In both cases, the risk is managed through routines that work until they do not.

Uganda’s police response also points to a second constraint: when formal justice is slow or distrusted, authorities must police not only the suspect but the crowd. The decision to call in the army and fire warning shots suggests officials expected immediate escalation, turning a crime scene into a public-order problem within minutes.

The suspect was arrested at the day-care centre in Ggaba as parents and neighbours gathered outside. Police said they are still working to establish why he returned after paying the admission fee.