Africa-Press – Uganda. The office of Lwengo Resident District Commissioner has recovered Shs5.2m out of the shs10m, which President Museveni had donated to one of the families that lost their loved ones during the July-August spate of killings by machete-wielding assailants in Masaka sub region.
Some people including a police officer had reportedly shared the condolence money meant for the late Francis Ruhamyankaaka’s family among themselves.
However, when the deceased’s relatives from Kisoro District complained to the office of the RDC early this month, the individuals who had taken the money on behalf of the family were ordered to return it.
Ruhamyankaaka died on August 1, but his family learnt about his death two weeks later after he had already been buried at Ddongwa Village, Kisekka Sub County in Lwengo District.
The RDC, Mr Herman Ssentongo, identified those who took the money as Sergeant Julius Mbabazi, attached to Lwengo Police Station and Mr Paul Lukundo, a crime preventer in the same district, who had shared Shs5m and Shs250,000 respectively.
Mr Edward Ssentongo, a resident of Nakateete Village who was a friend to Ruhamyakaaka received the Shs10m from State House on behalf of the family. He reportedly used part of the money for the deceased’s burial on his private land at Ddongwa Village.
The RDC said the outsatnding balance will be recovered from the respective individuals on Monday and hand it over to the family.
“All those who swindled the condolence money will have to pay it back to the right beneficiaries as the President directed,” he said.
The RDC asked relatives of Ruhamyankaaka to go to his office on Monday to receive DNA results from blood samples taken from them a couple of weeks ago.
“DNA tests were carried out to establish whether the claimants are the true relatives of the deceased before handing over both the body and money to them,” he said during an interview on Saturday.
According to Mr Kwizera Nfitumukiza, a cousin to the deceased, they have already secured a court order to exhume the body of their relative and take it to their ancestral village at Gakoro in Nyakabande Sub County Kisoro District.
Ruhamyakaaka was one of the 25 victims of the machete killings in Masaka whose families received Shs10m each from President Museveni.
Two other families –one of late Joseph Ddumba Lutaakome, 60, who was a resident of Buzinga Village in Lwengo District and another of Francis Kizza Mugerwa of Ssettaala Village in Kimaanya- Kabonera Municipality in Masaka City killed on August 4 and August 23, 2021 respectively have since complained that they missed out on the President’s condolence money after relatives failed to catch a bus that was taking the group to State House on September 8.
Mr George Mutabaazi, the former Lwengo District chairperson who led relatives of the victims to State House – Entebbe, advised all the families that lost their loved ones and those who got injuries in the July –August machete killings in the area, but missed on the money, to petition the President for financial assistance.
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