Security, city mortuary release counsel Wameli’s body, NUP headquarters off its Itinerary

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Security forces and the City Mortuary at Mulago hospital have on Saturday morning handed over the body of lawyer Anthony Wameli who died last month in the United States of America. The body has been taken to a funeral home in Mengo for final dressing from where it is to proceed to Kanyanya at the church he co-founded. The earlier intended stage of paying respects at the National Unity Platform headquarters has been struck off the programme.

Security personnel including the ordinary police, the Field Force Unit -FFU of the Police had been deployed from the Kubbiri roundabout near Pastor Samuel Kakande’s Church all the way to the mortuary main entrance.

This area usually doesn’t have security personnel deployed there. Even at the entrance of the City Mortuary, there are usually only two to three guards and usually from private security. Today, the security personnel deployed from the Church to the mortuary entrance are more than 20.

The Kampala Metropolitan police spokesperson Patrick Onyango says the deployment was intended to ensure that there is no interference in handling the body of Counsel Wameli. He says, they wanted to ensure that there was no chaos caused by Wameli’s fans or otherwise which could affect traffic flow. Wameli has been a legal defender for many NUP leaders and supporters.

Wameli who was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer died on 8th February 2023 while at the Boston Medical Centre US where he had been hospitalised since September 2021.

His body was returned to the country Friday afternoon and although it has been planned that it would be taken to the offices of the National Unity Platform-NUP where he served as the head of the legal team and later to his Marital home in Mukono, government told family and friends that they needed to first conduct postmortem on the body. Government conducts postmortem on bodies returning from outside, regardless of the country of origin.

It was hence taken to the City Mortuary where government did the postmortem and the family now camped at the mortuary await for results and release of the body.

According to the program released Thursday, the body shall today be taken for service to Ebenezer Faith Ministries in Kanyanya where the late was a founder and pastor. From there, the body shall be taken to Wameli’s home in Namisindwa District in Eastern Uganda for burial. However, this program is likely to change following the interruptions.

Wameli died at the age of 44 having been born on 29 August 1978. He has the head of the legal team of the NUP and also attempted at joining active politics during the recently concluded elections of 2021 when he contested for the position of Member of Parliament for Bubulo East. He was also a human rights lawyer under his company of Wameli & Co, Advocates.

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