Bury the dead on weekends, Ugandans told

Dr. Rajni Tailor, the president of the Hindu Council of Africa and former Buganda Kingdom minister has called upon Ugandans to bury the dead on weekends.

Dr. Rajni Tailor argues that a lot of valuable time is wasted on burials during the week.

Tailor, a Ugandan national of Indian descent who was born in Old Kampala and grew up in Wobulenzi argues that Ugandans spend too much time attending burials on weekdays, which affects productivity at workstations across the country.

"We are spending too much time ku lumbe (funeral). If I am not wrong, President Yoweri Museveni once said we should be burying the dead on the weekend, so we use working days for production," he told New Vision in an interview at his office in Kampala.

Tailor, the past chairman board of trustees of the Indian Association of Uganda says the time is now for Ugandans to starting thinking of emulating other countries around the world who do not bury the dead during weekdays.

"If you look at Europe and other countries, they have times for burials. Here in Uganda, we take our own time. If someone passes on, why don't we do the burial on Sundays? Or even Saturdays because people work half day" he said.

While in Islam, the dead are buried within twenty four hours of death, the Christian faith has no particular timelines for funerals. Most of the time in Uganda, the dead are buried two to three days after their demise.

With a crumbling mortuary system in Uganda, how feasible is it for Ugandans to bury their dead on weekends?