Business boom for funeral service providers

Kampala

Funeral service providers are stretched by the number of clients seeking their services.
At A-Plus Funeral Management premises yesterday there was no hearses. “My parking lot is empty because the hearses have been taken out for use. The last one here is being prepared to go out to attend to a client,” Mr John Mutumba, the assistant operations manager, said.

“The client base has increased since Monday morning after the bomb blast. We have had to lose clients because we could not contain them,” he said. Mr Mutumba said the company can only take eight clients per day and that all days were fully booked until tomorrow.

Mr Mutumba said by Tuesday morning, they had sold up to 12 coffins with each going for between Shs450,000 and Shs800,000. “We never sell in such big numbers. In a day, we may sell only four coffins,” he said. At Kampala Funeral Directors, the authorities said the death toll has increased the number of clientele.

Mr Ben Kiranya, the field supervisor, said, “We have managed to get three clients in a period of two days, which seldom happens.” However, the story is quite different for Uganda Funeral Services, where the parking lot still had quite a number of hearses. “I do not think all the 76 people that have been declared dead can all come to the funeral service companies for their services. People still use the traditional way,” Mr Aloysius Mutyaba-Mukiibi, the firm’s general manager, said.