The opposition National Unity Platform-NUP has rejected a report by the Uganda Police Force indicating that one of presidential candidate Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu’s body guards fell off a car.
According to Kyagulanyi, Francis Ssentaza Kalibbala was on Sunday knocked by a military truck at Busega roundabout while escorting an ambulance transporting Ghetto TV member Ashraf Kasirye to Rubaga Hospital. Kasirye had been shot at in Masaka on the fateful day.
However, the Uganda People Defense Forces-UPDF Spokesperson Brigadier Flavia Byekwaso, in a statement denied the allegation explaining that Ssentaza died of injuries he sustained after he fell off a speeding drone vehicle that was part of Kyagulanyi’s convoy.
While at Ssenteza’s burial in Kirowooza village, Kalungu District on Monday, David Lewis Rubongoya the NUP Secretary-General told mourners that the security report was wrong and intended to hide the truth of what really happened.
According to Rubongoya, the party secured X-ray can report which indicated that the deceased had suffered a crushed skull and bones around his chest fractured.
However, Fred Enanga the police spokesperson issued a statement on Sunday explaining that their task teams which were actively investigating the matter, faced a setback, after the victim was buried at the ancestral home along Villa road, in Kalungu District, without being examined on post mortem.
“The body of the victim was released with post mortem forms, by Rubaga Hospital to close relatives and NUP members for them to transfer the body to Mulago City Mortuary for postmortem analysis. Unfortunately, they diverted the Ambulance and the body of the victim to the NUP offices in Kamwokya, where a vigil was held. The body was thereafter, transferred to the deceased’s ancestral home in Kalungu Villa Road, for burial” Enanga said.
He added that several engagements with the family including Major General Elly Kayanja, granted permission for a post mortem examination to be carried out in Masaka and that a team of police pathologists flew by chopper to Masaka to conduct a joint postmortem analysis with family doctors, to help classify the cause of death and the nature of injuries.
Enanga says that despite clearance from the family, several NUP supporters who were aggressive blocked police efforts to have the body of the deceased examined by a joint team of medical experts and proceeded to bury the victim, without postmortem examination.
We are disturbed by the conduct of these supporters in blocking the postmortem examination. We have now started the process of obtaining a court order to exhume the body of the victim for post mortem analysis, to classify the cause of death and the nature of injuries. The initiative is also a great opportunity for our task teams of investigators to make sure all the different parts of the investigations are completed. Any further progress will be communicated in due course” Enanga said.
However at the burial, the NUP presidential candidate Kyagulanyi Sentamu told mourners that Francis’ death was deliberate and among the many schemes to weaken his soul and resolve to challenge the system.
