Drama has ensued after a family refused to bury the body of an inmate who died on remand in Kirinya prisons in Jinja district demanding a written explanation from police authorities on the circumstances surrounding his death.
According to police, 19-year-old Sam Bamugemye died on his way from Kamuli together with other inmates where they had been deployed to cut trees and clear ant hills.
Prison authorities took his body to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital on Friday morning for postmortem before it was handing it over to his family for burial.
But, Bamugemye's relatives led by his father, Patrick Kisame also dumped the body at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital mortuary on Sunday night citing irregularities in the postmortem report.
According to the report given to the family by authorities, Bamugemye died of blunt trauma on his head. However, Kisame faults Kirinya Prison authorities for conducting the postmortem on the body of his son in absence of any family member.
“There is no way I can bury my son without finding out the whole truth, they never involved me in the postmortem process" he said.
He now wants the prisons authorities to issue out a written statement concerning his son’s death and also request for another postmortem from a different hospital.
Bamugemye according to a source, slid and fell off a prison truck and died instantly.
Frank Baine the Uganda prisons authority spokesperson said the deceased died on remand but declined to divulge the details.
The deceased was incarcerated after cutting off his colleague's hand during a mob attack last year.
