Kiboga food poisoning victims buried

By Nelson Kiva Kiboga

Two people from the same family who died of suspected food poisoning have been buried as their other four relatives continue to battle for their lives at Mulago hospital in Kampala.

Initially, it was six family members who fell seriously ill Sunday night after eating poisoned food. But they were reduced to four, still fighting for life, after doctors at Kiboga hospital announced the death of Stephen Sserugo, 19, and the victims’ grandmother, Mangadalena Irumba, said to be in her 70s Tuesday night.

One of the relatives of the victims, who claimed to have eaten the same food as the rest that evening but did not get sick, feared that they could have been “attacked by a strange disease or witches”.

No official medical report has been released on the cause of the sickness and that of the two deaths.

The news of the family’s fate has stirred a bit of uproar from the area residents who demand for serious investigations into the matter.

Kiboga district Criminal Investigations Officer Stephen Ssemanda has since called for calm.

At the burial on Wednesday evening, speaker after speaker called for thorough police investigations to establish the exact cause of the deaths.

Scores of emotional mourners attended the funeral which took place at the deceased’s ancestral home in Kizinga village, Kibiga sub-county in Kiboga district.

Rev Mesach Lubega of Bamusuta of Bamusuta archdeaconry led proceedings at the burial.

Local leaders, including the district LC5 chairperson Israel Yiga attended the emotional ceremony.