Tears as family, friends bid farewell to Kagezi
Former senior State Attorney Joan Kagezi’s children George Phillip Kulubya, Carol Milcah Namugambe, Pearl Priscilla Nampiima, and John Harvey Ssenkubuge together with a relative lay a wreath on the coffin containing the body of their mother at St. Luke Church, Ntinda. Kagezi was buried on Thursday in Buloba on Mityana Road. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa
Kampala. Emotions ran high as mourners who filled St Luke’s Church in Ntinda, eulogised slain prosecutor Joan Kagezi.
Her father, Mzee Serwadda Kaggwa failed to make a speech, her four children comforted each other to remain strong but inevitably sobbed through their speeches while Kagezi’s boss, Justice Mike Chibita struggled to hold back tears.
Kagezi was shot dead on Monday night as she drove back home with her children.
“This is the nightmare they will live with that she left with them. And as fate might have it, Mzee Serwadda arrived at the crime scene moments later as he returned from Najjeera High School where he is head teacher.
Mr Kaggwa said he was uncomfortable making a speech and asked his nephew to make his remarks.
“In a short distance, he saw a scuffle. In the middle of it all, was his daughter’s car and he thought Joan had knocked down a child but a few moments, he saw her children crying and also saw Joan with her head down on a steering wheel dying…all is now history,” Mr Kaggwa’s nephew told the mourners
The children also had fond memories of their mother.
Mr John Harvey Ssenkubuge Kagezi, said on the fateful day, he picked a cloth for his mother that she wore that day.
Ssenkubuga, 11, who also described his mother as a loving parent; told mourners that as a family, they had planned to have a great Easter.
“Mummy, I can’t find words that I can use to express to say that I love you….” a sobbing Ssenkubuge said. “Mummy was always there for us and she always took us to school every morning and always told us that she loved us..”
Speaker after speaker spoke of the good attributes and works of the late Kagezi. The family of the slain prosecutor’s late husband spoke of how it felt uncomfortable whenever their daughter was assigned high profile cases.
“When I saw her handling such sensitive cases, my heart got frightened as a mother and when I got a call on Monday I said, this is what I had feared,” Ms Sarah Birungi speaking on behalf of the Kagezi family said.
Speaking at the burial, Buganda premier Charles Peter Mayiga asked security agencies to fight such acts of terror that have engulfed the country.
Family
Kagezi’s children are; George Phillip Kulubya (22), Carol Milcah Namugambe Kagezi (21), Pearl Priscilla Nampiima Kagezi (16) and John Harvey Ssenkubuge Kagezi (11). To sum up their mother’s journey, Pearl Kagezi, who took the second reading quoted the Bible (2Timothy 4:1-8), “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my race. I have kept the promise.”
