Families receive bodies of S. Sudan bus crash
Oct 02, 2014
Grieving relatives last evening flocked Mulago Hospital mortuary to pick bodies of their loved ones killed in Monday’s bus accident in South Sudan.
By Vision Reporters
KAMPALA - Grieving relatives last evening flocked Mulago Hospital mortuary to pick bodies of their loved ones killed in Monday’s bus accident in South Sudan.
The Kampala-bound bus from Juba collided with a trailer that was travelling from Uganda. The incident involving a bus belonging to Bakulu Bus Company occurred near a bridge at Nisitu junction, about 25km from Juba, killing over 30 passengers, most of who were Ugandans.
THE DEAD
Joyce Andera
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When Joyce Andera 32, boarded the bus in Juba at 5:00am on Monday, she telephoned her husband Francis Osiaga, who was in Kampala, that she was returning home, but no one knew that it would be her final journey alive.
“She told me she was coming to clear the children’s school fees,” Osiaga said.
Andera, who worked with a juice manufacturing company in Juba was travelling to their home in Makindye, a city suburb. Andera, who is survived by three children, will be buried today.
Michael Segawa
Segawa was a pastor at Mukono Miracle Centre. He had been travelling to Juba since last December amidst civil unrest, saying South Sudanese needed to hear God’s message.
“It almost four days since the accident occurred. The Government should have airlifted the bodies and the injured soon after the accident,” complained Enock Katumba, his brother.
Fiona Namugenyi
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She had spent three years in Juba. She had separated with her husband and father of her three children. In Juba, Namugenyi had remarried although the family was yet to meet her new husband.
Jude Ssempijja, Namugenyi’s younger brother, said his sister was expecting her fourth child and was returning to Uganda to give birth since she was due this month (October).
Grain Magezi
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Grain Magezi with his wife Namakula on their wedding day
Grain Magezi with his wife Namakula on their wedding day
He sold motorcycle seat covers in Juba where he had lived for three years. He often returned home every fortnight to visit the family and get new merchandise.
Grace Namakula, the widow said during their telephone discussson on Saturday, Magezi said he would be returning on Monday. They had two children, the elder being 18 years.
Julius Bogere
Twenty-two-year-old Bogere relocated to Juba in May in search for a job, according to his uncle Muniru Zairwa.
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An unidentified man arrives at Mulago mortuary to claim the body of a relative. PHOTO/Kennedy Oryema
An unidentified man arrives at Mulago mortuary to claim the body of a relative. PHOTO/Kennedy Oryema
All the 13 bodies ferried to Kampala aboard a lorry were picked by relatives. Bakulu management arranged the return of the dead most of them in a decomposing state.
New Vision learnt that other Ugandan bereaved families between Monday and Tuesday picked bodies of their kin from hospitals in Juba.
Meanwhile, David Tenywa and Ayub Kiggundu have had surgical operations, while Sula Jamada is admitted to Lacor Hospital in Gulu.
Stephen Odongkara, the Uganda Police deputy commander of the integrated highway patrol, which coordinates Uganda and South Sudan, says the traffic Police in Uganda have introduced a check point on the Ugandan side at Atiak, between Gulu and the South Sudan border point at Nimule to check for speeding drivers to and from Juba.
Richard Kiyimba, a transport consultant, advised that bus companies that ply regional routes should hire drivers across the borders to reduce accidents due to the different traffic laws in the region.
This was after it emerged that the likely cause of the accident was the Ugandan driver’s failure to stay in the right lane of the highway.
This was after it emerged that the likely cause of the accident was the Ugandan driver’s failure to stay in the right lane of the highway.