Namungoona fuel tank inferno DNA results out

By Carol Kasujja, Jeff A. Lule & Viola Nabatanzi

MULAGO, Kampala - Wails filled Mulago mortuary as the Police revealed the identities of eight bodies that were burnt beyond recognition in a fuel tanker inferno in Namungoona a fortnight ago.

“We have successfully gone through this process without a lot of challenges. Six out of the eight bodies matched the rightful tests we did.

"The other two remaining bodies are going to be kept in the mortuary until we get the persons whose DNA results match the bodies,” Dr. Moses Byaruhanga, the Police surgeon, said at the health facility on Monday.

Byaruhanga said they delayed to announce the results because by the time the incident happened, the DNA analytical machine was due for service.

The Kampala Metropolitan Police chief, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, who addressed some of the bereaved, assured the mourners that the tests had been carried out professionally and transparently to make sure there are no fights over bodies.

“Some people are claiming that their relatives were burnt beyond recognition, but that is a lie, bodies were just deformed. We managed to get everyone,”he said.

Meanwhile, doctors are overwhelmed by different people who are still showing up at the hospital claiming to be relatives of the deceased even after the results are out.

Though the DNA test for Patrick Sserukuma, who passed away last week, matches that of his biological mother, Harriet Nakawungu, a one Justine Nalugwa, who claims to be the late Sserukuma’s sister, wants to find out why her blood test could not match with her dead brother’s.

“I am his biological sister and want to take his body for burial. I will follow up other things later.

I have never seen that woman who is claiming for his body. She just wants money,” said Nalugwa.

As doctors, Police and mortuary attendants looked on, Nalugwa slapped Sserunkuma’s mother, saying she is not the real mother. Nakawungu who stayed calm, said she did know Nalugwa.

Sserunkuma’s body was eventually handed over to the biological mother, leaving Nalugwa in tears and cursing everyone.