Girl believed dead is alive: Family buries wrong person after mix-up at Kawolo hospital
Mr Micheal Muyiyi and other relatives stand near a new grave where they mistakenly buried a wrong person thinking it was his daughter. PHOTO BY MUDANGHA KOLYANGHA
What you need to know:
- The girl's body was found floating near the shores of Lake Victoria in Buikwe District.
A family in Doko-Nesenyi village, Kabwangasi Sub County, Butebo District, is in shock after they erroneously buried a dead body thinking it was their deceased daughter.
Mr Michael Muyiyi told Daily Monitor on Sunday that he heard a news report on one of the Jinja-based radio stations that a decomposing body of a girl whose description matched his daughter’s, had been found floating along the shores of Lake Victoria on November 25, 2019.
“The description of the body and the dressing code matched that of my 18-year-old daughter, Winnie Nandudu, who had left home in August,” he said.
Mr Muyiyi said that he and his brother only identified as Patrick travelled to Kawolo Hospital in Buikwe District to pick the body.
They first rushed to Buikwe Police Station where the case had been registered as CRB 03/25/11/2019.
According to the November 26, 2019 post mortem report [PM NO-334/2019], the girl died as a result of strangulation and suffocation.
Mr Muyiyi explained that they were given a clearance letter signed by a police officer only identified as No 21772-D/SGT Christmas before they picked the body.
“When we entered Kawolo hospital, I looked at the girl’s face and body structure and had some doubts but my brother said she was the one. We quickly bought a coffin and brought the body back home for burial,” he explained.
Days after the burial ceremony, Nandudu telephoned her mother.
“We all got scared because we had just buried her body. We could not believe that our daughter was still alive. We travelled to Kampala where we met her,” Mr Muyiyi explained.
On their way from Kampala, they reportedly went to Kawolo central police station to explain the confusion and how they ended up burying the wrong person but they were told that no one else had ever claimed the body.
“However, we were only told to go back to the police station another day to record more statements in regards to the incident. We are now stuck and don’t know what to do next,” he said.
The Area LC1 chairman, Mr Ronald Werikhe and the LC3 chairman Mr Jacob Mosiko said they also didn’t know how to help Mr Muyiyi’s family.
“This was quite a disturbing incident in the area. I don’t even know how to help them,” Mr Werikhe said on Monday.
