The major deaths of 2009

In a year that saw President Museveni publicly agonise with a swollen finger for weeks following a freak bathroom fall; hunger killing dozens in the countryside, the wicked mutilating children for riches and Swine Flu surfacing to eclipse the worries, it appeared easier for Ugandans to die than live in 2009.

June
June 6: Forum for Democratic Change party’s motor-mouthed activist, Tom Julunga, is murdered in cold blood. Police initially linked the death in Ndeeba, a city suburb, to a botched robbery but later, and rather embarrassingly, retracted the statement after medical experts said the poor fellow was shot.

June 9: Kyambogo University student, Sam Buyinza, allegedly kills and stuffs girl friend Grace Rubanga’s body in a television box. Nothing macabre had been heard earlier in the year of such foul ending to youngsters’ romance.

June 26: A huge tremor shook the musical world as pop star Michael Jackson is pronounced dead weeks to a highly anticipated set of thrilling comeback concerts in London. His classic – and sometimes soothing – releases jumped record sales, making the legend even richer, posthumously.

August 16: When evictions from land became a political fodder, catapulting the recent enactment of the 2007 Land (Act) Amendment Bill, tenants, apparently drawing on perceived executive endorsement, assumed boundless powers. In Kayunga District, some residents of Kayonza Sub County chopped their landlord Sam Kubo and set his body and pickup truck alight after he tried to sell off his land on which the attackers were squatting.

September
September 10-12: Buganda, central government quarrels erupt into a volcano and security agencies shoot dead, according to official statistics, some 27 civilians while quelling pro-Kabaka riots in and around Kampala. It’s a sad history written in blood, certain to haunt incumbent leaders for life.

September 17: Up to 17 African Union troops, including Burundian army officer, Juvenel Niyoyunguriza, the Force’s overall deputy commander, die when Al Shabaab hardliners wrecked the soldiers’ Mogadishu headquarters with car bombs. Since then, Uganda has been on tenterhooks following threats by the Islamic radicals to attack us at home, turning the UPDF sacrifices in lawless Mogadishu to a foreign policy and security nightmare.

October 5: Lt. Aggrey Mwondha, a UPDF soldier and commander of the Kyabazinga Royal Guards, is suspiciously knocked dead by a trailer at the peak of public altercation over replacement of late king Muloki Wambuzi, throwing Busoga kingdom into perpetual disarray.
October 26: President Museveni’s adviser, Fr. Albert Byaruhanga, 58, is snatched by death in an accident in Mubende on Kampala-Fort Portal highway, which also claimed lives of two pedestrians. The linguist and amiable character is being missed for his even-headedness at a time when power, especially political, seems to intoxicate leaders.

November
November 4: Enock Ssebanga, Uganda’s poster-child for torture, succumbs to leukaemia at 21 years. His parents; Mr Charles Kayongo and Ms Regina Nabakoza, who locked and starved him for days in an abandoned store, are out after serving their jail sentences. The Monitor’s August 7, 2000 cover picture of Ssebanga’s scraggy body is a rude reminder of sorts about ongoing parental wickedness in our society.

November 8: Vice President, Professor Gilbert Bukenya’s son, Byran, a UPDF Officer Cadet trainee, dies following a reported accident at Bbira-Bulaga on Kampala-Mityana Road.
The family later disputes the official account that the UK-trained lawyer perished in a motor crash, raising the stakes in ongoing secretive investigations by both the Police and army.
November 10: Norah Oting, the mother of Joseph Kony, the world’s most-feared living warlord, is pronounced dead at Mulago Hospital. At 83, she, by Ugandan standards, lived life to the fullest. But her wish to see Kony out of the bush remained unfulfilled.

DIED: The Late Kazini

Former decorated Army commander, Maj. Gen. James Kazini, 52, is found dead at the house of Lydia Draru, a lover half his age, in the slum of Namuwongo, a city slum. Hailed indisputably as a war hero, voices of disapproval largely greeted the manner in which he died, however brutal. Investigators will have to establish, as conspiracy theorists allege, whether Draru, the self-confessed killer, could have been assisted to snuff out the army general.
November 30: National debate returned to the status of disintegrating roads and reckless driving as Budiope constituency MP, Henry Balikowa crashed into a Scoul sugar cane-delivery tractor at night in Mabira forest.

Saturday Monitor shares the grief of families that lost dear ones and pleads for discipline on the highways this festive season and beyond.