Africa-Press – Uganda. Police and leaders in Tororo District are investigating the circumstances under which unknown people buried remains of nearly 20 unknown people overnight in Mukuju Sub-county’s Akworot South Village.
Adding to the mystery was the news that Joseph Okumu Boma, a resident, who sold the land to a yet-to-be-named person at Shs18m, suddenly died last Friday hours after reporting about the fresh graves to his family.
Ms Teddy Anyokot, a sister of late Okumu, who was reportedly in bad health, said the police should fast-track investigations into the source of the bodies and ascertain the identities of those who conducted the secret burials.
“These might be people who were killed elsewhere and [their bodies] simply carried and buried in a remote village of Akworoto to cover up the crime,” she said.
Mr Mayo Ojulu, the Akworoto South Village chairperson, who counter-signed Okumu’s land sale agreement, said he did not know the buyer, raising questions about how he endorsed the deal.
Police have since summoned him to record a statement and help with the inquiries.
Mr Ojulu said he was not aware of the multiple burial of remains of unknown people in his area until the neighbours to the fresh graves alerted him at about 10am last Saturday.
“I am told the people came in the night and started burying human remains without the knowledge of any authority in this area and we are wondering who was behind this act,” he told Daily Monitor.
According to Mr Joseph Orono, a resident of Akworoto Village, the dead bodies were trucked for burial in the area at night by strangers wielding machetes.
“We heard the sound of a truck and when we came out, we saw a group of people burying dead bodies in this potato garden. We tried to ask them who they were and where they brought the dead bodies from, but they kept quiet and proceeded with their illegal act,” Mr Orono said.
There is nothing to suggest that the residents took additional action, such as calling police, and it is unclear why.
Following the death on Friday of Okumu, the land seller, residents mobilised and exhumed five of the buried remains, prompting rebuke from Mukuju Sub-county chairperson Wilson Obonyo.
“I condemn the act by the locals to disturb the peace of the dead,” he said, acknowledging that the suspect interments happened without knowledge of local authorities.
According to the Penal Code Act, exhumation of graves or a grave without court order amounts to disturbing the peace of the dead and people who are found to have carried out the unlawful act are liable to arrest and prosecution and, if found guilty, to imprisonment.
Mr Orono said the entire village is horrified because they do not know what will happen next now that some bodies had been exhumed, although residents had reburied them by last evening.
“We are living in fear because we do not know why the bodies were buried here and we do not know the identities of the deceased people and what could have caused their deaths,’’ he said.
Police detectives from Tororo Central Police Station Homicide department and officials from the domestic spy agency, Internal Security Organisation (ISO), visited the site last Saturday, cordoned it off and dug up one grave from which they retrieved human remains tied in a white piece of cloth.
The Gombolola Internal Security Officer (GISO), Mr Robert Ochen, and other leaders were by press time still unsuccessful in locating the new owner of the land in which the human remains were buried and identities of those who buried them.Some residents, however, claimed that a close relative of late Okumu bought the plot.
Mr Silver Okuni, another resident, speculated that several village-mates including children have been falling sick with strange illnesses ever since the discovery of the graves.
Mr Okuni said police should arrange to rebury the bodies in the public cemetery in Tororo Town, pending outcome of their investigations.
“The exhumed bodies should be taken away because the ghosts have started disturbing us and our children are having sleepless nights,” he said.
However, Mr Ignatius Okiror Okong, an elder in the area, said the graves should not frighten residents because a person who has bought land has the right to decide what to do with it land.
Mr Joram Malong, the Mukunjju Sub-county councillor, said he had received unverified information that the human remains were exhumed from Kasooli Village in Tororo Town, where the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is planned to pass, in order to secure the route.
When contacted, Mr Musa Mugwe, the police spokesperson for Bukedi south, said they had sent a team on the ground to establish the facts because the information they obtained was “scanty”.
“I am waiting for a report from our officers that we sent to the ground,’’ he said.
Mr Yahaya Were, the deputy resident district commissioner, who also is second-in-command on security matters in the district, said his office had instructed the police to go to the ground and initiate investigations if the warranted.
About SGR
Construction of the SGR remains a mirage and government attempts to secure funding from China have thus far been unsuccessful, although the process of securing vacant possession of land for the project has been underway for years.
