The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Family Division of the High Court will today decide where lawyer Bob Kasango will be buried.
High Court Judge Lydia Mugambe Ssali on Monday and Tuesday heard arguments from both parties on the impending burial of the lawyer who died from Luzira Prison almost a month ago.
Kasango’s widow Nice Bitarabeho filed the case seeking permission to bury the husband in Kabarole district, after contention with family members who wanted to bury him in Tororo. Nice told the court that they had been allocated land in Fort Portal where Kasango wanted to be buried after denouncing his family.
She added that she was told by Fox Odoi, a former MP and one of the relatives that the family in Tororo planned to kill Kasango when he was still young. The court also heard that Kasango was never close to his family members in life, let alone her mother, Rose Kabise, who is fighting to stop the burial in Tooro.
Bitarabeho also told the court that she never met her mother in law, until after seven years of her marriage to Kasango and that every time she asked him about his father, he broke down in tears. But Kasango’s mother Rose Kabise told the court that Kasango who was born in Busoga to a Musoga man Livingston Richard Kasimo and raised by his stepfather Bonaventure Okello, a Japadhola from Tororo.
But she added that Kasimo died many years ago and, she heard that, he had been buried somewhere in Bulemezi where he had bought a piece of land. Kabise added that Kasango had bought her land in Tororo, and this is where she wants her son to be buried. However, during cross-examination by Bitarabeho’s lawyers Jamilu Mujurizi and Humphrey Tumwesigye it was revealed that there is no proof for the purchase of land in Tororo.
Kabise further narrated that Bitarabeho was well known to her because she attended her wedding at Sheraton Kampala Hotel in 2000. On that day, Kabise says that she was attempting to bring her a cake as a parent, but Kasango lifted the cake and took it to his aunt Florence Okello.
The third witness Esau Michael Opiiri who was testifying as a neutral person said that Kasango shouldn’t be buried at the in law’s place since it is against the traditional values and norms of the Japadhola. Opiiri added that Kasango’s grandfather was a Musoga but chose to be buried in Tororo.
Kasango succumbed to heart-related complications while serving a 16-year jail term for theft of more than sh15 billion meant for pensioners.
The constitutional court recently also made a ruling on a case he had filed, questioning the legality of the DPP who was prosecuting his case. He argued it was unconstitutional for a serving judge to be DPP, and the court last week agreed with him.
His body is lying at A Plus Funeral home where it is being guarded by police while waiting for the families to resolve this rift.
********
URN
