Butaleja, Kibuku districts struggling to enforce restrictions on burials

Butaleja, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Butaleja and Kibuku district Covid taskforces are struggling to enforce the restrictions on funerals as part of the measures to contain the spread of coronavirus.

According to the taskforces, the communities in both districts have adamantly ignored the restrictions on the number of mourners.

While announcing the lockdown, President Yoweri Museveni restricted the number of mourners to only 20 people especially close to family members to ensure the required physical distance.

However, Stanley Bayoole, the Butaleja Resident District Commissioner-RDC says that it is business as usual in the district.

According to Bayoole, he is tired of pleading with people to stop attending burials and has resorted to arresting them for prosecution.

Kibuku Resident District Commissioner Mwanamoiza Kikomeko has issued strict orders against people attending burials.

She says that no religious leaders will be allowed to preside over a burial ceremony with more than 20 people.

Kitunzi Yahud, a journalist with Daily Monitor, who also hails from Butaleja district says that the COVID-19 situation in the district is dire and only prayers can help. He says that many COVID-19 patients are dying in shrines.

The Busabi sub-county LC V councillor says that people are still locked in the old ways of viewing dead bodies before burial, which has escalated infections.

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