Police chief, widow clash over condolence money
Ms Jane Kemigisha with some of her children.Ms Kemigisha says her children have been out of school for a year due to financial constraints. Photo/Herbert Kamoga
What you need to know:
- Ms Jane Kemigisha says she has been stigmatised, is on the verge of losing property, and her brother-in-law is determined to take the little money she is entitled to, Herbert Kamoga reports.
- The police commissioner claims Shs20 million is too little, saying it cannot even pay his own children’s school fees for one year.
The unfinished house in Buleega Village, Kapeeka Sub-county in Nakaseke District, is a testament to the trials and tribulations that have plagued Ms Jane Kemigisha and her children since her husband died in December 2023.
When Monitor visited the home, the peasant woman was sorting greens, a lesu tied around her dress and a scarf wrapped around her head. Grief and despair are etched on her face.
“I never went to school, and now my children have been denied the chance of receiving an education. Their father used to pay their school fees. Now, he is dead, and the one who received his money has used it for his ends,” she laments.
Ms Kemigisha and her husband, Mr John Bosco Byamukama, were married for 19 years. During that time, they built a home in Lugoba, Kawempe Division, Kampala City. To ensure their children received the best in life, Byamukama travelled to South Africa for greener pastures. At the time of his death, he was employed by Takealone, a South African online store. On December 22, 2023, Byamukama was involved in a fatal accident in Johannesburg.
His body was repatriated on January 5, 2024, and buried in Ishaka Municipality, Bushenyi District. Although the couple were not wedded, they had had an introduction ceremony (kwanjula). Byamukama did not leave a will.
“The company he worked for catered for the burial expenses. His death was a shock. One minute we were talking on the phone, planning how to complete the construction on our house, and the next, he was gone,” Ms Kemigisha says.
Before her husband’s death, the widow says she had sold their home in Lugoba, Kawempe, with her husband’s consent, bought land in Nakaseke, and began constructing the house she lives in today with their children.
“Lugoba had become congested, and our house was really dilapidated. The pit latrine had collapsed, and we were one step away from a disaster,” she explains. After the burial, Ms Kemigisha received a call from her late husband’s coworker.
He asked what her immediate challenges were because his colleagues had decided to fundraise money as a contribution to Byamukama’s family, including completing his house.
“I told him my biggest challenge was school fees. My firstborn was going to Senior Four, another child was going to Senior Three, and the other was joining Primary Seven. The youngest, who are twins, were going to Primary Two,” she says.
The man advised Ms Kemigisha to use part of the money to open up a business to sustainably provide for her family. However, the glitch came when he informed her that the money was to be wired into her bank account.
“They had collected Shs20 million but I did not have an account. I could not open one either because I had lost my national identity card when my bag was stolen. It was agreed that the money would be sent to the account of my brother-in-law, Paul Mugisha Kansiime,” she says.
Mr Kansiime is an assistant commissioner of police (ACP).
The challenge of DNA results Two days after the money was wired into his account, in February 2024, ACP Kansiime informed Ms Kemigisha that he wanted to have the children’s deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) checked.
“He wanted to know if all my children belonged to my husband. I borrowed money and took the children to the Government Analytical Laboratory in Wandegeya. I asked him when he would give me the money for school fees, and he informed me that he would do that after we got the DNA results,” Ms Kemigisha narrates.
Ms Kemigisha was informed that the results would return in a month. However, she received them in August, six months later. All this time, her children were not in school.
“One of the technicians at the laboratory interpreted the DNA results for me. They indicated that my husband had only fathered our three older children. The twins, the last borns, were not his,” Ms Kemigisha says. The widow says she did not mind the DNA results.
All she wanted was for ACP Kansiime to release the money so that she could pay the school fees for the three older children who belonged to her husband.
“Kansiime refused to release the money. My children did not go to school last year. We are now in May, and it looks like they will not be educated this year as well. He has never given us a shilling of that mabugo,” she laments.
In despair, the widow contacted her late husband’s colleague in South Africa and told him of her plight.
However, she says when the man called ACP Kansiime, the latter quarrelled and switched off his phone.
“When my son called Kansiime, he told him not to call his phone again. He said the money sent to him was not meant to provide for us. He told us not to bother him with our plight,” she says.
The widow says she sought help from the Uganda Police Force (UPF) headquarters in Naguru, Kampala, where ACP Kansiime works, the Police Professional Standards Unit (PSU), and the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), all in vain.
“He told his superiors that he would only give me the money after the DNA results. However, even with the results, he does not provide for us. I appealed to other in-laws, but it appears that they are on Kansiime’s side. He has a lot of money and can bribe anyone,” Ms Kemigisha cries out.
The couple had an acre of land in Ishaka Municipality. When Ms Kemigisha tried to sell off a piece of the land to cater for her children’s school dues, the police commissioner threatened the village’s LC1 chairman with arrest if he permitted the sale.
“He instructed his relatives to lock me out of my husband’s house. Then, he sent a truck full of policemen to halt the sale of the land. The policemen told me they had been instructed to arrest a terrorist who had invaded the home. They were talking about me,” she narrates.
Ms Kemigisha’s older children, who are supposed to be in Senior Five and Senior Four, are now porters, doing menial chores on construction sites to earn between Shs5,000 and Shs10,000 a day. This money is meant to buy food and cater for the family’s medical expenses.
Police boss responds ACP Kansiime is part of the senior management of the UPF, working in the Inspectorate Department. When Daily Monitor put to him the widow’s complaints, he admitted that he had indeed received Shs20 million as mabugo.
However, he denies withholding the money. He claims that he took his niece back to school and she sat her Primary Leaving Education (PLE) exams but failed. He further claims that his nephews do not want to return to school.
“I have been summoned to several offices with regards to that matter, and it is now under PSU investigation. If she is not satisfied with that, let her go to court. That woman has sold everything that my brother owned. She wants to show that she is powerful. We cannot allow hooligans to disorganise people’s homes,” he notes.
ACP Kansiime explains that while the money sent was supposed to educate his brother’s children, he had incurred expenses during the burial that had to be paid. He also questions the manner of his brother’s death.
“Besides repaying debts, I used part of the money to complete the construction of my brother’s house. We lost our brother in unclear circumstances. He was supposed to return home in January 2024. He died in December 2023. That woman had sold his home in Lugoba and had produced children outside the marriage,” he explains.
The police commissioner claims Shs20 million is too little, saying it cannot even pay his own children’s school fees for one year. He accuses Ms Kemigisha of selling the land in Lugoba, Kawempe at Shs27 million to buy land in Nakaseke District at Shs4 million. He does not know exactly where his late brother’s family lives and is unbothered. “If her children do not go to school, that is not our problem. That is their mother’s problem. Those boys became a nuisance, and we shall not educate them until they apologise to me.
They even refused to greet my mother when they went to the village,” he adds. ACP Kansiime further accuses his sister-in-law and her children of lewd behaviour, something, he says, his late brother could not stand. “She used to go to bars with different men, drinking alcohol.
The boys were also just wandering around the village. Even then, her children were not going to school. My brother was stressed by her behaviour. .. At this age, does she think I still have shame?” he asks. ACP Kansiime has served 35 years in the UPF. He says he has already informed the PSU commandant that he will not give Ms Kemigisha the money.
Appeal to higher authorities
Mr Vincent Nuwagaba, a long-time family friend of the Byamukamas, says even if the twins do not belong to his late friend, Mr Kansiime should educate his brother’s three children.
“That Shs20 million belongs to those children. Why is he clinging to it? He is an arrogant man and talks with impunity. He is very powerful in the police and knows that we cannot do anything to him. But we are determined to get justice. Why should his brother’s children live like paupers?” he asks.
Mr Nuwagaba appeals to higher authorities in the government and in the police to heed the plea of the widow and orphans. Ms Kemigisha and her children live at the mercy of their neighbours. When her sons fail to find a construction site on which to work, her neighbours provide the family with the little food they can spare.
