A Ugandan official has suggested to MPs that funerals should be limited to Saturday afternoons to stop people taking time off work to attend them.



Speciosa Kazibwe, a former vice-president who now heads a state development agency, noted that Uganda's death rate was very high.



Uganda has been hard hit buy HIV/Aids, which caused 91,000 deaths in 2005.



Ms Kazibwe said each constituency should have a mortuary with a fridge that could preserve corpses.



She made the comments in a meeting with MPs on economic development.



"I get surprised whenever I hear of a politician who abandons office and attends a funeral," the New Vision newspaper quoted her as saying.



Burials were taking up lots of time as well as productive vehicles, she said.



Support



One MP who heard the proposal, John Emile Otekat, told the BBC that he backed it.



Ms Kazibwe's plan would "save a lot of time wasted and it would also make families really prepare for burial, instead of just burying a person just like that."



"Most of us spend [more of] our time doing burials than any other thing, especially because of HIV/Aids and malaria which is very prevalent in Uganda."



He said this was a particular problem for politicians.



"Most of the members of parliament, even district councillors, they spend a lot of their time in burials instead of doing their work because as a politician you must be seen to be with your people during times of difficulty."



People were buried more quickly in Uganda than in neighbouring Kenya, he said.



Even so, he said the government would have to make sure there were more mortuaries before such an idea could ever be implemented.



He also noted there could be a conflict with the Muslim custom of burying people within a day of their death.

Bannange mulimutya eyo yonna jemuli. Nze ndi Vincent nga nsoma MBA e New Delhi India. Kubya former vice president nze ndaba waliwo ebintu nga bitanu byatalowoozako ng'awa ekiteso ekyo:



1. Ebyobuwangwa-abaganda bawa nnyo ekitibwa ababa babavuddeko/bafudde era mubuwangwa bwabaganda teli agenda kkola nga yafiridwa era

2. Lwaki abantu bafa nnyo nekituka okulemesa n'abantu okukola? nze ndowooza kino kyeyalitesezzako nawa engeri jetuyinza okukendeza okufa kw'abantu ssosi kutesa kuzimba mortuaries/fridges.....

3. Amasanyalaze (not even half of Uganda has electricity naddala mubyalo, frequent loadshedding)

4. Cost y'okugula fredges ezo, akusasula mortuary attendants etc

5. Ye abantu balina emirimu?



Ndowooza tamanyi bulungi byabuwangwa bwabuganda owekitibwa former vice president. Naye nebweyandibadde tabimanyi nsubira n'e Busoga jyazalwa ekyo ekintu tekisoboka. I think its totally against Baganda norms, values and ideals related to the departed.

Before mukyala Kazibwe thinks about developing the burial system in Uganda, let her think first about the social sector. Ugandans are dying of hunger, poor accomadation, lack of medical facilities and so on.

So how can one just jump up to modernise the burial system as if Ugandans have no other serious problems.

Thats how people came up with building "dams projects" and ended up setting water pipes.



Uganda has a poor transport system, so how will the roads accomodate a heavy traffic ,if every family and friends start heading up for burials on Saturdays? Before one family reaches Masindi to burry someone, it will already be Sunday afternoon.



People have been burrying years and decades in Uganda but no one has ever been affected,



My advise to the ex-vice, now a state developer or something like that, is , let her try finding ways of solving hunger and other problems before jumping into burrials which are not even a matter of development, the dams were more developmental as the burials.

Ffe abasiramu eddiini yaffe tetukkiriza kusuza maiti.

FROM THE DAILY MONITOR.

Eyewitness account; rotting dead bodies at city mortuary
It’s sad

Monday afternoon this week. A second year student of Education at Makerere University, Mubarak Abdallah, standing by the roadside is run over by a reckless driver in a speeding truck that swerves off the road to avoid a head on collision. There is no ambulance to rush him to hospital. He dies.

The driver of the killer truck escapes. This happens at Nansana, on the outskirts of Kampala. Police arrives, takes the body to Old Kampala Police Station. A few hours later, the body is taken to the city mortuary. It is already dark.

The morgue attendant is very helpful. He places a disturbing call to the doctor in charge, who has already left for his home after a day’s work. The doctor, a brilliant young man perhaps in his 30s, drives back to perform that urgent autopsy on Mubarak. He does all the necessary paper work.

These two, the morgue attendant and the doctor are a rare species. They are heroes. For all the bother they go through, they don’t ask for a penny from us. All this happens under a small torchlight. The city mortuary has not had electricity for several days now, we are told.

We now have the permission to take out Mubarak’s body. But we have to wait for a vehicle we have sent for. As we wait, we strike a conversation with the morgue assistant. His job is to receive dead bodies, prepare them for autopsy, assist the doctor during the examination and make sure that they are kept well until they are positively identified and claimed by their kith or kin. Tough job. But it gets tougher.

He doesn’t have even the basic items he needs to do his work. He often runs short of hand gloves. He then has to handle dead bodies, often in varying stages of decomposition with his bare hands. He doesn’t have sterile masks to cover his nose and mouth- flies from decomposing bodies have often touched his mouth- he sadly confesses.

The stench from the rotting bodies in the morgue is unbearable. It is not because there is no electricity these days. The fridge broke down long time ago and has not been repaired. So the bodies cannot be preserved. They must rot. What is wrong with the fridge? I ask. It is just its fan that broke down.

Our truck arrives. It is only three of us who can carry him out. The rest are women, too afraid to enter the mortuary. Mubarak’s sister, Khadija Mayanja, the headmistress of Mariam Girls’ High School in Kisaasi, is visibly devastated- she won’t stop sobbing.

Inside the mortuary, we have a small torch. I look around. I see several corpses lying there, some covered, some completely naked. Most are rotting. The stench hits me hard – I get dizzy. I want to vomit but I can’t. There is a lump in my throat that won’t clear….Ican’t swallow my own saliva. I think my heart is stopping.

Then the askari, who has been now been left in charge shows us our own Mubarak– lying there pale and lifeless – a second year university student who was doing his school practice.

The place he was killed at a good Samaritan had covered his body with her own cloth- a lesso, also known as Kanga- a kind of wrapper with no stitches. His head had been badly shattered. The rest of the body was intact.

As we struggle to take him out, I think of the unclaimed bodies we were leaving behind. And like a fool, I count Mubarak lucky. At least we were there to retrieve his body in time, and prepare for his decent burial before he would decompose in the government facility.

I think about the life of the mortuary assistant who has to be here so that he can put food on the table for his family. And the doctor, who has to work in these horrible conditions. I am deeply depressed. A young man, my own, is killed by a careless driver. The vehicle’s mechanical condition is yet to be ascertained.

His body is checked into a facility run by Kampala City Council. It has no electricity, no refrigeration, no detergent to clean the floor of the fluids oozing out of the decomposing bodies. The city has a man called Mayor and a woman called Town Clerk. It has someone in charge of health. They draw a salary and allowances and the dilapidated mortuary has a vote on the budget, every year. Someone ought to pay for this. Sooner or later.

Kazibwe must have used the mouth that takes out instead of the one that takes in when making her suggestion.Eeehh am thinking out loud.

Soon it will be burial weekend parties.
Saturday and Sunday will probably not be enough to bury all the dead!!
The prospects for dying are excellent
The plan is mistake-free, and user-friendly.
Twakogerera nga wawedde dda.
Saddam Hussein used the same plan, successfully.
Soon it will be party time every weekend.
Kazibwe, you have a brilliant weekend burial plan. Or is it Kazibwe?



SOMEONE's plan to kill Ugandans using WMD is revealed
Last updated : 30 Jul 2008, Kampala

Dear readers,

As you have read from our earlier report today, a local newspaper Daily Monitor and an online one Black Star News has reported that President Museveni has been trafficking in dangerous chemicals on the international market. The paper said on July 30, 2008 that an aide to Museveni called Lt. Ananias Tumukunde was caught in London as part of an operation to buy and bring deadly chemical weapons to Uganda.

Now fellow citizens, we may disagree about many things but let us agree on this one First, this is not an accident, that people did not know what they were doing. The law is very clear on this matter.

Uganda is a signatory to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction.

This treaty states in part that :


1. Each State Party to this Convention undertakes never under any circumstances:
(a) To develop, produce, otherwise acquire, stockpile or retain chemical weapons, or transfer, directly or indirectly, chemical weapons to anyone;[Emphasis added]

(b) To use chemical weapons;

(c) To engage in any military preparations to use chemical weapons;

(d) To assist, encourage or induce, in any way, anyone to engage in any activity prohibited to a State Party under this Convention.


2. Each State Party undertakes to destroy chemical weapons it owns or possesses, or that are located in any place under its jurisdiction or control, in accordance with the provisions of this Convention.


The second fact is that there is one and only one use for the dangerous substances "Chemical Ananias" is alleged to have been trafficking, that is to kill. And in this case judging from the destination, to kill Ugandans.

The third fact is "Chemical Ananias" was not acting alone, or privately. Given the fact that State House has been actively representing, trying to secure his release or at least gain leniency from the British authorities since he was apprehended on money laundering charges several months ago (see "Another State House official nabbed in the UK" of 03 May 2008 on our front page), we can only arrive at one conlusion, that he was acting on the orders or at the very least knowledge of State House. Since there is only one bull in that kraal, the president himself cannot escape being a prime suspect.

In this age of instant banking, "Chemical Ananias's" preference for carrying thick bundles of cash should be seen in this light, that the master mind behind this scam was trying to evade traceability of money transfers. How long this has been going on is not yet known.

From these three facts, the only question which remains to be answered is who was going to be Museveni's target with these deadly materials? Since it is illegal to even possess them in the army, Ugandans should start asking what Museveni would need chemical weapons for except to murder Ugandans. And how many have already succumbed?

It is regrettable that we have no health system to speak of, Museveni's government has not only failed to put up any hospital, but has seen to it that the health delivery system put in place by previous governments is collapsed. This has two important outcomes, first, when someone falls sick, doctors are at a loss to dignose the illness. Should the case be sophisticated poisons like the ones "Chemical Ananias" is said to have been shopping for, then the case is lost because the best our local doctors can do is test for and treat ordinary organic poisons. The second effect is that serious forensic analysis by pathologists is almost impossible in the country. So even after the person is dead, little can be done to determine the cause of death. You can see that in this scenario, someone with a diabolical mind can commit the perfect crime, where he can never being found out.

There are many "poison" and mysterious death incidents of the past few years. Some others we have been talking about in previous reports but we shall just mention a couple.

Back in 2005, Winnie Byanyima blew the whistle that "poison spray guns" had been smuggled into Luzira prison to kill her husband Colonel Kizza Besigye while he was being held there on trumped up charges.

Brig. Noble Mayombo we know by now was eliminated using poison. We should also note that some of the people who the government appointed to investigate his death are the very ones caught up in this new WMD scandal.

Capt. Namiti died in Ward 4B at Mulago Hospital of "acute poisoning". He was admitted and treated, then after showing signs of recovery, his condition suddenly worsened and he died.

There are many others but since they are no longer with us, so we can look at the possible next targets. Daily Museveni is seething with anger that his secrets are being leaked to the media and the public by people who work close to him in State House. Could he have been preparing to eliminate suspects in his inner circle slowly one by one? We must remember that this has always been his favorite hunting ground of killing people who are close and seen as rivals.

Then there is another group which has emerged recently. These are former beneficiaries and ardent supporters like Jim Muhwezi, Henry Tumukunde etc who have now become vocal "reformers" after being unceremoniously kicked off the high table.

Museveni could also be thinking long term and he knows a good number of senior army officers detest his regime, and more so his plan to force his son Major Kainerugaba on the presidency.

For some more ideas, readers may also benefit from revising our report "A warning to prominent Ugandans" of 18 Jan 2008 found on the front page.

In addition to these highly visible targets, we must think wider to the general population and avoid being caught off guard. We must not forget that they are called Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) for a good reason. You will recall that during the demonstrations against the sale of Mabira forest and other demos by the Democratic Party, protestors kept complaining that the "tear gas" which was being used by "police" (read Museveni's agents dressed in police uniforms) left a serious itching pain on the skin. Normal tear gas does not have such effects. It irritates the eyes and nose but not the skin. No one should have any doubt that Museveni is capable of using dangerous chemicals against the general public but was this the case?

A source who knows Museveni well from his days of UNLF said that is the way he operates and we should start seriously monitoring the public water supply. We appeal to patriotic citizens in all sensitive places to be on extra alert and tip someone off should you notice anything unusual. We are not dealing with a normal dictator.

We shall try and monitor this serious story when we get more facts.