Corpse returned after 38 years
Oct 26, 2007
THE remains of a Ugandan, which had been stuck at the Uganda High Commission in London for 38 years, were returned yesterday for burial.<br>Luke Kitone, who died in the United Kingdom in 1969, had been kept at the basement of the commission building.
By Paul Kiwuuwa
THE remains of a Ugandan, which had been stuck at the Uganda High Commission in London for 38 years, were returned yesterday for burial.
Luke Kitone, who died in the United Kingdom in 1969, had been kept at the basement of the commission building.
Juliet Kutuusa, his sister, received the urn containing the remains weighing five kilogrammes at Entebbe airport at 8:45am.
By press time, the remains had been taken to Kutuusa’s home in Makindye, a Kampala suburb. Burial will take place at Kakukulu village in Kibaale district tomorrow.
“I thank the MPs on the public accounts committee, the foreign affairs permanent secretary and minister Matia Kasaija who helped return my brother’s remains,†Kutuusa said as she wept.
The commission in London said Funeral Care International transported the urn containing the remains to Uganda. The New Vision on August 1, reported that MPs assessing the state of the High Commission were shocked to discover the remains of Luke Kitone.
The body, according to MP Sebuliba Mutumba, was cremated and the ash kept in a wooden box with a metal plaque bearing the Kitone’s name and date of birth.
“To our surprise, the commission staff told us that they had not got any contacts of the next of kin,†Mutumba said then.
After reading the story, Kutuusa approached the MPs and claimed the corpse.
She told the committee that her brother was taken to Canada in 1964 by Archbishop Joseph Kabana.
She said after Kabana’s death, Kitone joined a monastery in Britain where he died in 1969.
Kutuusa, a student at Trinity College Nabbingo then, said it was the deputy headmistress who informed her of Kitone’s death.
“I was young and in Junior One. I informed our relatives.
“However, I could do nothing to return the body,†she told the parliamentary committee.
THE remains of a Ugandan, which had been stuck at the Uganda High Commission in London for 38 years, were returned yesterday for burial.
Luke Kitone, who died in the United Kingdom in 1969, had been kept at the basement of the commission building.
Juliet Kutuusa, his sister, received the urn containing the remains weighing five kilogrammes at Entebbe airport at 8:45am.
By press time, the remains had been taken to Kutuusa’s home in Makindye, a Kampala suburb. Burial will take place at Kakukulu village in Kibaale district tomorrow.
“I thank the MPs on the public accounts committee, the foreign affairs permanent secretary and minister Matia Kasaija who helped return my brother’s remains,†Kutuusa said as she wept.
The commission in London said Funeral Care International transported the urn containing the remains to Uganda. The New Vision on August 1, reported that MPs assessing the state of the High Commission were shocked to discover the remains of Luke Kitone.
The body, according to MP Sebuliba Mutumba, was cremated and the ash kept in a wooden box with a metal plaque bearing the Kitone’s name and date of birth.
“To our surprise, the commission staff told us that they had not got any contacts of the next of kin,†Mutumba said then.
After reading the story, Kutuusa approached the MPs and claimed the corpse.
She told the committee that her brother was taken to Canada in 1964 by Archbishop Joseph Kabana.
She said after Kabana’s death, Kitone joined a monastery in Britain where he died in 1969.
Kutuusa, a student at Trinity College Nabbingo then, said it was the deputy headmistress who informed her of Kitone’s death.
“I was young and in Junior One. I informed our relatives.
“However, I could do nothing to return the body,†she told the parliamentary committee.