Court blocks burial of inmate's body

On Tuesday, the aggrieved family's lawyer, Mr Juma Munulo secured an order from the Jinja Grade One magistrate, Ms Agnes Nambafu blocking the deceased’s burial. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • She added that it was wrong for prison authorities to hand over the deceased’s body to his relatives without notifying police as required by law.
  • The deceased’s mother, Ms Jenifer Kwagala, said burying her son without thorough investigation surrounding his death would be an injustice to the aggrieved family and deceased. 

Court in Jinja has issued an order stopping the burial of an inmate who died on remand at Kirinya prisons. 

Sam Bamugemye, 19, is said to have died last week while him and his colleagues were coming from Kamuli where they had been deployed to cut trees and clear ant hills.  

Prison authorities took his body to Jinja Regional Referral Hospital on Friday morning for postmortem before handing it over to the relatives for burial. 

However, the deceased's relatives led by his father, Mr Patrick Kisame returned and dumped the body at Jinja Regional Referral Hospital mortuary on Sunday night citing irregularities in the postmortem report. 

The postmortem report shows that Bamugemye died of blunt trauma on his head, but prison sources claim he slid from the truck and fell to death.

Mr Kisame faults Kirinya Prison authorities for conducting a postmortem on his son’s body in the absence of family members. 

On Tuesday, the aggrieved family's lawyer, Mr Juma Munulo secured an order from the Jinja Grade One magistrate, Ms Agnes Nambafu blocking the deceased’s burial

He said the deceased’s family will not bury his remains until investigations are complete.   

“The prison authorities had called the relatives to pick the body for burial which is procedurally wrong. They should have first reported to police for investigation. The deceased body had injuries on the head, so it is possible that the death resulted from violence,” Mr Munulo said.

Ms Nambafu directed police to investigate the matter within a week’s time, saying court will make a ruling on the deceased’s burial on March 20, 2019. 

She added that it was wrong for prison authorities to hand over the deceased’s body to his relatives without notifying police as required by law.

The deceased’s mother, Ms Jenifer Kwagala, said burying her son without thorough investigation surrounding his death would be an injustice to the aggrieved family and deceased.