The final send off of Kawempe North MP Muhammad Ssegirinya was sealed off by scenes of drama and controversy as mourners clashed over his body.
It all started after the leaders of the National Unity Platform-NUP led by their President Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu alias Bobi wine, rejected the official final funeral arrangements that had been spearheaded by parliament.
On Saturday evening, Ssegirinya’s body wash was delivered at his ancestral home in Butale cell, Nyendo-Mukungwe division in Masaka City, ahead of his burial on Sunday.
However, a group of NUP supporters commonly known as “foot soldiers” who were shouting on top their voice emerged and furiously blocked the funeral service teams from taking the body to the playground; the main venue for the funeral arrangements.
While Ssegirinya’s body spent a night in his parent’s home, the organising team led by Nyendo-Mukungwe MP Mathias Mpuuga, chosen to hold the funeral in a community play ground, located about 3 kilometers from the home.
As the police brass band set out to begin a procession to take the body out, a furious mob of NUP supporters blocked the way, a situation that resulted into fistfighting, in which several people sustained injuries.
According to Mpuuga, the organising committee had liased with the family and to host the funeral gathering at playground, that would provide them enough space.
He explained that the Parliamentary Commission assigned a team to liaise with the family to organize a decent burial for the MP, indicating it all they would allow everybody to give a speech before burial.
“Its unfortunate that some people can choose to play petty politics over the body of fallen comrade. It’s not within our norms that we fight over dead bodies. It’s just civil and human and we respect our brother and afford him a decent burial,” he said
Amid the scuffles, the police were overpowered and the NUP supporters retained the body after locking it up in the house.
Despite, Ssegirinya’s brother pleading with the NUP leadership to allow the body to be taken at the playground, his request fell on deaf ears.
Joel Ssenyonyi, the Leader of Opposition in Parliament indicated in his speech that they could not allow the state to takeover the burial of their colleague, whose death is suspicious.
“The state has a direct hand in the Hon Ssegirinya’s death. They arrested him on trumpeduo charges, denied him bail to seek medical care until his situation detoriated.
It can’t be the same government that is now pretending to love him after death and want to accord him paphanaria,” he indicated, amid loud chants from his audience.
Amid the ensuing chaos, Sheikh Ahmed Kaboggoza who led the funeral prayers, urged the willing mourners to proceed to the main venue, before they performed the prayers without the casket.
The group that proceeded to the main venue managed to jostle their counterparts and managed to move Ssegirinya’s children, two of his brothers and the two widows, while the body was retained alongside his mother.
“Instead of engaging in unwanted fighting, we can proceed to perform the funeral prayers without the body, just as it’s done when someone dies from abroad and we can’t have the body with us,” he noted.
He however castigated the NUP leadership for not prevailing over the situation, yet the party has an ample moment of eulogizing the fallen MP at their party headquarters.
The proceedings at the main venue was apparently conducted amid heavy security deployment of both the anti-riot police and the army personnel.
John Bosco Kasagga, one of Ssegirinya’s brothers indicated that family was shocked by the conduct of the NUP leadership, indicating they forced their mother to stay with them because she could afford leaving behind her son’s body.
“The party reached out to the family and we honored their request of taking the body to the headquarters to pay him respect, but were surprised that they created all this confusion,” he said.
Twaha Kasirye, the Greater Masaka Regional Police Spokesperson observed that they found it necessary to advise the organizing committee to proceed with their arrangements despite the dispute that played out, to allow the situation to remain calm.
He however indicates that their teams are already gathering evidence about the ring leaders that stirred the fights and will be charged accordingly.
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