Police in Mukono arrested the LCI Chairperson of Sugu-Lugala Village in Mpatta Sub County Mukono District for authorizing Herbart Wamala, a land dealer to exhume fourteen dead bodies from a fraudulently purchased piece of land.
The LCI Chairperson, Yuda Kasoma issued a letter authorizing Wamala to clear the burial ground consisting of fourteen graves belonging to the family of Steven Musisi Wante 67, a resident at Seeta-Nazigo in Nakisunga Sub County in Mukono District.
It is alleged that the burial ground was cleared without the knowledge of the concerned family and the exhumed remains taken to unknown destination before the land measuring to four acres was partitioned for sale.
Musisi says after failing to receive redress from police at Mpatta for a period of over two years, on September 7 this year he filed a complaint with the Office of Mukono Resident District Commissioner Fatumah Ndisaba who summoned the accused persons for a mediation on September 19. After declining to turn up, the RDC ordered for their arrest.
Wamala told police that he bought the land from Richard Kiyagga known to the entire community of Sugu-Lugala as the owner.
However, Musisi insists that the land belongs to him and other two brothers; William Kiyoola and Wilson Mutebi who agreed to preserve it as their burial ground.
He explains that they had allowed Kiyaga, their distant relative to utilize the land as a caretaker but since the incident happened, he went into hiding besides ignoring their telephone calls. The encroacher damaged crops, demolished a house, toilet and a kitchen.
The LCI Chairperson has told police that Wamala sought his permission to clear the graveyard a few days after buying off the land.
The RDC, Fatumah Ndisaba says the chairperson together with the encroacher acted out of the prescribed laws which guides exhumation practice in the country.
She also reveals that the preliminary investigations obtained by his office also indicate that Wamala has been mounting threats to the complainants due to the vulnerability of their age.
“Even when I summoned Wamala for mediation, he declined to turn up saying he can only be summoned by the president. I was left without an option other than ordering the police to arrest him.” Ndisaba notes.
The Public Health Act which forbids exhumation of the body or remains interred in any authorised burial ground or any other place without a permit granted by courts of law to a legal personal representative or next of kin of the person buried or a duly authorised agent as well as the district commissioner.
The permitting authority may prescribe such precautions as he or she may deem fit as the condition of the grant of the permit, and any person who exhumes anybody or the remains contrary to the public health act or neglects to observe the precautions prescribed as the condition of the permit, is liable to a fine.
This website has established that the arrested suspects will be charged with criminal trespass, damage of properties, exhuming and disturbing peace of the dead.
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