Developers in Masaka target land of the dead
Masaka Regional Referral Hospital director, Dr Nathan Onyachi, said the city leadership needs to do something because the situation at the city cemetery is spiralling out of control. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- Mr Tom Luyobya, a councillor representing Nyendo-Mukungwe Municipality, said they will table a motion before the council to compel all the encroachers to pay lease charges to enable the council raise money to purchase an alternative piece of land.
The management of Masaka Regional Referral Hospital has expressed concern over developers who are increasingly encroaching on land for a public cemetery.
This unprecedented grabbing of public land, according Dr Nathan Onyachi, the hospital director, has forced casual workers tasked to bury unclaimed bodies to encroach on the adjacent hospital land at Kamirampago Village on the Masaka-Mbarara bypass .
“The new city leadership needs to do something because the situation at the city cemetery is spiralling out of control. Let them identify alternative land for the new cemetery because we cannot allow them to continue encroaching on our land, which is planned for the hospital expansion programme,” Dr Onyachi told this publication last week .
On average, the hospital keeps four unclaimed bodies daily besides those of patients who die at the facility.
Unclaimed bodies are picked from Masaka City streets and from major highways in the area.
The bodies are mainly for mentally disturbed people and those killed in robberies and accidents.
Dr Onyachi said he has already written to the city mayor, Ms Florence Namayanja, asking her to halt burying of unclaimed bodies on hospital land.
“It is evident that the cemetery is too full to accommodate more bodies, sometimes the bodies are buried behind the staff quarters and when it rains, they get exposed because they are shoddily buried in shallow graves,” he added.
Daily Monitor has established that one pit is used to bury more than one body, and since they are shallow, dogs sometimes exhume them.
According to Mr Achilles Mawanda, the city deputy mayor, they were tasked by council during one of its sittings to inspect the 10 –acre cemetery at Kamirampango and make a report, but were surprised to find that developers have taken over the land.
“It is a pity that a cemetery that has existed for years has been taken over by developers, they have built permanent houses and we are wondering who gave them permission,” Mr Mawanda said.
He, however, appealed to the hospital administration to give the city council more time to find a solution.
Mr Tom Luyobya, a councillor representing Nyendo-Mukungwe Municipality, who is also in charge of finance, said they will table a motion before the council to compel all the encroachers to pay lease charges to enable the council raise money to purchase an alternative piece of land.
