Africa-Press – Uganda. Uncertainty looms large on where and when remains of former Supreme Court judge, Stella Arach-Amoko, will be interred following eruption of a dispute among family members about the right burial place.
The children and relatives of the deceased, posthumously citing her royal heritage and declaration before death, want her final resting place to be on Jukia Hill in Nebbi Town, contrary to official plans to bury her at her husband, Ambassador James Amoko’s home in Adjumani.
The feuding sides were last night locked up in a heated meeting chaired by Ms Anita Among, the Speaker of Parliament, where Arach-Amoko’s body remained after lying in state in the day.
It was unclear if the dissenters, who have struck no common ground since Tuesday, would each cede ground to resolve the burial dispute.
Arach-Amoko died at Nakasero Hospital in Kampala on Saturday, and was due to be buried tomorrow.
“This is a family issue that we are waiting for them to sort out by themselves. Where they tell us to go is where we shall go for burial,” Judiciary spokesperson Jameson Karemani said last evening.
Ambassador Amoko last night declined to comment on the dispute. The diplomat and jurist had no children between themselves, each having come to the marriage with children from past relationships.
The three children of the deceased, in a June 20 petition to the Judiciary permanent secretary, asked for official arrangements to inter their mother in Adjumani District to be aborted, arguing that she prior to her demise made multiple wishes to them and her siblings to be buried next to her father’s grave in Nebbi.
The judge reportedly made the declarations to her brother Godfrey Picho and sister Christine Onyok, who was her caretaker at Nakasero Hospital, on June 12.
They averred that they have no attachment to Adjumani, the home district of their step father whom they claimed had never taken them home or showed them land there.
The trio, supported by an uncle and aunt, further contend that they were not parties to a meeting held at the Office of the President in Kampala which decided that the former judge be laid to rest in Adjumani.
“We have also been guided by Ragem elders that our deceased mother was a granddaughter of Rwot Ragem, making her stand an ordinary princess and this requires cultural rituals of immense intonation that needs to be performed at her burial which can never be done [in] Adjumani,” their petition reads in part.
In a separate petition to the PS on the same day, Dr Geoffrey Onegi-Obel, who signed off by the cultural title of Jadog Rwodi Ker Kwaro Kaal Jonam, argued that Justice Arach-Amoko was a royal. As a result, by tradition, he noted, she required to be buried at Kaal Ragem royal burial grounds in Pakwach District, except that she preferred to be interred in the neighbouring Nebbi Town and next to her late father, a former judicial officer.
On the other hand, relatives of Ambassador Amoko counter-argue that culturally a wife to a Ma’di is buried at the husband’s place.
Sources familiar with the proceedings told this publication that the “tough” behind-the-scenes negotiations, which have been ongoing since Monday, have been complicated by the fact that the judge died without a will, leading to a contestation of the veracity of what has been presented as her dying declaration.
Her children and siblings have now contracted GEMS Advocates law firm to represent them in the talks and possibly court amid report that they intended to seek a court order, likely today, to bury their mother on Jukia Hill, just outside Nebbi town.
The chief registrar, Sarah Langa Siu said Arach’s burial had been postponed.
“This is to inform you that due to factors beyond our control, the burial ceremony of the late Hon. Lady Justice Stella Arach-Amoko, Justice of the Supreme Court, will not take place on Friday, June 23, 2023 as had been planned. New details will be communicated in due course,” reads Ms Langa’s June 22, 2023 statement.
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