Gov't prepares to return Odong's body

The ugly hand of death has robbed Uganda of a senior scientist, Michael Odong, who died at the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, Netherlands on Monday morning.

The 53-year-old Odong, an assistant commissioner in charge of agro-chemicals in the ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, left Entebbe International Airport aboard KLM Airlines on Saturday morning for Geneva, Switzerland, to attend a conference.

The Agriculture ministry spokesperson, Connie Acayo, in a sad tone said "Odongo was heading to Geneva to attend an international conference on agro-chemicals at the time he died."

Odong, who hails from Gulu in northern Uganda, was travelling through Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to Geneva when he collapsed and died. The agriculture ministry publicist could not confirm whether Odong had travelled alone or with a team.

Born on September 30, 1963, Odong's nationality was confirmed by Uganda's Mission in Brussels, which said it was working on bringing his body back home.  

According to Acayo, the agriculture ministry had no details about the return of their staff's body, but noted that the Foreign Affairs Ministry was working on the process to bring Odong's body back to Uganda. 

Sources said Odong was one of the few experienced agro-chemists in Uganda.

This is the second Ugandan official to die on a trip abroad in a space of hardly two months. On September 4, a Ugandan diplomat, Ambassador Gilbert Najuna-Njuneki, the in-charge of special duties at the foreign affairs ministry, died while returning from Norway.

The foreign affairs minister, Sam Kutesa, said the ambassador died at the airport in South Africa, where he had just arrived from Oslo, Norway.

Details in The New Vision tomorrow...