By Faustine Odeke

A pandemonium broke out in Mella 'A' village in Mella sub-county, Tororo district on Sunday morning when an enraged man beat up the body of his late child forcing mourners to flee in disarray.

Peter Iku, 25, a boda-boda cyclist in Malaba town shocked the mourners when he decided to beat and throw away the body of his eight-month-old baby girl that was lying in his house.

The angry looking Iku also beat up the mother of the deceased child, his mother in-law plus some women who were seated by the corpse forcing them to abandon their slippers and bags behind.

Trouble erupted when Iku received the sad news of the daughter's death at Tororo main hospital prompting him to lock all his three grass-thatched houses before disappearing. He never wanted to incur the costs of burial arrangements.

When his wife Shida Akware, 21, was three months pregnant, Iku claimed that the child did not belong to him and chased her away. Akware returned to her parents' home in the neighboring Koitangiro village until she gave birth but last week the child fell sick and was admitted to Tororo hospital from where she died on Saturday.

The clan members who took the body to Iku's home, with the help of the area LC officials decided to break into the house where they laid the corpse in preparation for the burial.

Minutes later Iku emerged from hiding and found only women at his home and headed to kick the corpse several times before throwing it out of his house.

The mourners made an alarm that attracted the residents who rushed to the scene only to find Iku had vanished from the place. His clansmen and the Police have now launched a hunt for Iku who is believed to have crossed to the neighboring Kenya.

The Mella sub-county LC3 chairman Peter Olira condemned the act saying it could have been done under the influence of drugs.

Olira said majority of youths in the area have become unmanageable because of the rampant consumption of opium and waragi sold in tot packs that they carry in their pockets all the time.

He warned residents against the illegal growing of marijuana which is mostly done along the banks of River Malaba.

The Police in Malaba led by the officer in charge Joseph Mwesige last year uprooted two pick-ups full of the illicit drug that had been widely grown in the sub-county.