The November 24 fatal boat accident on Lake Victoria has left many families mourning while some of the survivors and their families have remained indebted to God. 

Prince Arnold Ssimbwa, one of the survivors of the survivors  turned up at Victory Christian Centre, where he gave his life to Christ and became a born-again Christian.

Before Pastor Joseph Sserwadda prayed for him and his wife, Ssimbwa shared in Luganda his harrowing testimony with the congregation. Carolyne Nakazibwe transcribed the testimony:

“Praise God, brethren.

Where do I even start!

“One thing I know is that Muzaana (his wife) has been telling me all the time, “give your life to Christ; get saved” and I won’t lie, we had problems because of that.

“See, out of the blue, she woke up one day and declared she was a born-again Christian. She did not prepare me, and I had to adjust to her new life. By default, in our bedroom we listen to Impact FM till morning. I knew the presenters, but not by face

“In June, we came here to dedicate our child. Last Saturday, I came back and everybody was sure I had died. Many of you have read about my escape. [When I came out of the water] I did not wait around. In fact, when I went to report to police, I told them, let me be your case study; I am not among the missing, I am not among the dead, I am nowhere.

“I am not on the survivors list. Yet when I was leaving Mutima beach after the accident, I left with 10 other survivors who are not anywhere on the lists. If you are looking for the true numbers, start there. There are so many people like me who left their homes without telling anyone where we were going.

“My wife returned home unaware of what had happened, but the maid had seen me leaving with my small bag. She had had a premonition the previous night, thinking ‘uncle left with a bag. Where Prince Wasajja is, Ssimbwa is not far off. It is impossible for him not to have been on that boat.’

“But she could not ask her boss about her suspicions that I was on the boat. I was on that boat – those who watched the viral video, I am the guy who was dancing on top of the boat. I can’t lie to you, I was drunk. When I left my dancing post, I decided to take a power nap.

“I found a bass beam and slept; it was booming music, but I slept on. But as I slept, water seeping into my shoes woke me up. I wondered whether I had wet myself and checked my clothes but I was dry. I looked out at the lake; on top of the boat being in bad shape, the lake was really, really choppy that night. Every few minutes, the waves would roll us this way, that way... The boat had stabilised a bit when the first big wave hit us.

“The generator that sat on the roof of the boat was knocked into the lake with two speakers. That was our first warning. Now, unless you are a good swimmer, you may not know that the first thing you need to do in such crisis is to compose yourself.

Think about the worst-case scenario and what you would do. I looked at where we were coming from – direction Ggaba – and a very bad wave was headed for us.

“I said, Lord, this is it. It was 8pm by then. We had been meant to depart Ggaba at 10am, but we left at 5:30pm. If other survivors speak out, they will tell you I told them that if the boat is not here by 3pm, let us not board. And the first man I met on shore told me, “You man, you were telling us not to go; how did you get onto that boat?” I told him, I don’t know.

“Now, by the time you see the wave with your naked eye, it means it is closer than it appears. I thought, should the boat capsize on this side, I will grab this rail. If it capsizes the other way, I will jump in and swim in the other direction, but I had no idea where that was. It was clear we were not more than 150m from the shore, but because of the state we were in, I reasoned that I could not swim beyond 50m without losing energy.

“I said I would not attempt to swim. When the boat capsized, I held on as planned. There was a man who was clinging to my leg, but I thought, if I kick him, I will never forgive myself; I knew the water would eventually wash him away but I could not give him my hand. At that time it is all about you.

“Eventually I felt him slip off and drown. All I was doing was praying, asking God for one more chance to put things right. I told Him, Lord help me; my children are young, I need to repent to my people. I maintained my grip on the boat and saw the first rescue boat approach.

“Every time I went under and resurfaced, I would notice that the boat was sinking and my body was disappearing further under the water. The first time I resurfaced, I noticed there were many people in the water, screaming. The second time I came up, the noises were reducing.

“The third time, I only saw bodies. People had been crying; saying ‘my children!’ And that is the problem; the breath they needed to survive, most of them were talking and crying. It can take only three minutes in water before one drowns. The first boat arrived and there was a scramble for it.

“The thing is, it was a fishing boat and the man was on his way to fish. Now that net entangled even some people with life jackets and they died. I watched and decided to wait.

“I was praying for one thing; for God to leave me with my breath and the grip on the boat. I ignored the second boat; it is the third boat that pulled up right to my side and I raised my hand and the man told me not to get in, but just cling to the boat. We were about 12 and we spread out around the boat to give it balance, then our rescuer used his oars to get us to shore.

“What killed the people on the first boat is that they were all fighting to climb into the boat. Imagine getting to the shore and seeing the people you had been drinking with lined up, dead! By the way, if someone had done CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation), most of them would have survived.

“But they would drag you out of the water and dump you there. I am so thankful to God that He gave me another chance. I still have so much to do; my home is in disarray and we need to put things right with my wife. So much has been said, but I believe this is a good start”.