Faking own death to escape bank debts

By Violet Nabatanzi

KAMPALA - A man who wanted to procure ‘his’ death certificate from Mulago Hospital mortuary has been arrested.

His arrest came after a mortuary attendant at the health facility tipped the Police of the man’s ploy to evade repayment of bank loans.

Ahmed Ssempala reportedly offered sh100,000 to a mortuary attendant in exchange for a certificate and a post-mortem report declaring him dead.

He took this direction upon being indebted to a tune of sh200m in accumulated loans from a local bank.

“A mortuary attendant told me that Ssempala wanted him to forge a death certificate and a post-mortem report,” said the officer in charge (OC) of Mulago Police Station, Hashim Kasinga.

“He had promised an advance payment as they processed the documents. When he came with the money, we arrested him.”

Police said Ssempala had also promised the mortuary attendant another sh50,000 which he was supposed to send via mobile money services.

The accused will be charged with forging a death certificate.

In another related fraud case, Mulago Police arrested Charles Makanga for allegedly forging 11 birth certificates for a cultural group.

The group was expected to travel to the US for a study tour and cultural exchange programme in May this year.

The director of Youth Passionate Organisation, Moses Sekamanya, told the Police that when they went to the American Embassy, they were denied visas because 11 certificates out of the 12 were forged.

“One of the parents of these children connected us to Makanga to provide us with the certificates. We trusted him and paid sh50,000 for each certificate, not knowing that the certificates were fake,” Sekamanya said in his statement.