Two students from Saint Peter Secondary School (Igihozo) on Monday drowned from a swimming pool at Hotel Dayenu, which is located in Busasamana sector of Nyanza District.

The school is also located in Nyanza.

The deceased have been identified as Yves Ngirinshuti, 15 and Bryant Rwabukayire, 14 both classmates in senior 3.

Inspector of Police Emmanuel Kayigi, the police spokesperson in the Southern Province, told The New Times that on Monday, several students asked for permission from the school administration to go to Nyanza town which they were granted.

"They went to a nearby hotel and our investigations so far indicate that one of the deceased didn’t know how swim and when a friend tried to help him, he couldn’t let him go so they ended up both drowning.”

The police spokesperson said that the hotel owner and the manager are in custody, but the pool lifeguard is still at large.

"We have so far arrested the owner and manager of the hotel on charges of involuntary manslaughter arising out of carelessness, negligence and failure to observe the standard rules or any other lack of precaution and foresight,” Kayigi said.

The offence, under articles 156 and 157 of the penal code, is punishable with a term of imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of Rwf5 million, upon conviction.

"Had the lifeguard been around, the incident wouldn’t have happened but management says he had been assigned other duties when the particular incident occurred.”

According to Kayigi, despite the fact that the pool was unattended, the hotel management let the children access it and were not provided with life jackets, which is the standard procedure.

Kayigi says that police had already informed the bereaved families, which both live in Kigali and they will work with school authorities to make burial arrangements.