Vituko Mitaani

The government yesterday said it was surprised by former Vice President Gilbert Bukenya’s claims that he was never given a postmortem report of his son who died in a motor accident in 2009.

Dr Baterana Byarugaba, the executive director of Mulago hospital, where Bryan Bukenya was pronounced dead, said Prof. Bukenya did not ask for the postmortem report. “He didn’t ask for it. If he wanted it, we would have given it to him. I’m surprised that he can make such claims because before he joined politics, he worked at Mulago and knows the process. Why didn’t he ask for it? If he wants it let him write to us and we give it to him” Dr Byarugaba said. Bryan died a month before he graduated as a cadet army officer at Kabamba Military School but four colleagues he was traveling with survived.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Monitor yesterday, Prof. Bukenya, who is also Busiro North MP, said he did not get a postmortem report and “I have heard a lot of whispers about that report.”
In the same interview, Prof. Bukenya declared he would challenge Mr Museveni for the presidency come 2016.
Prof. Bukenya, a physician, admitted yesterday he did not ask for the report but said families of the dead do not have to ask for the reports before they are given.

“I’m surprised for the first time in 40 years I spent as a medical practitioner that you have to ask for a postmortem certificate. It’s obvious that the certificate comes with the body whether the death is controversial or not. I’m really surprised the way they are reasoning,” he said.
Asked if he would write to Mulago to get the report, Prof. Bukenya said he would not but he would be happy to receive it.
“I will be glad to receive it because it would rest the controversy.”

At Bryan’s burial in 2009, President Museveni told mourners that he had asked the then Kabamba Military School commander, Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti, to explain circumstances under which Bryan and his colleagues had left school.

According to Mr Museveni, Lt. Gen. Gutti, who now commands the African Union force in Somalia, said Bryan and his colleagues had permission to travel home. The President promised he would investigate whether all the occupants of the ill-fated car wore seatbelts.

The UPDF chief political commissar, Col. Felix Kulayigye, yesterday said he was shocked that Prof. Bukenya was making such claims. “Does he think he will get the postmortem from the media? He is the former vice president and can get it if he wants,” he said.

Meanwhile, Prof Bukenya’s 2016 presidential bid continued to draw mixed reactions from the public, with the most recent feedback coming from controversial army general Kasirye Ggwanga who said “he will not pass the first test”.

According to Brig. Ggwanga, Prof. Bukenya is “a convict who should tread his presidential bid tactfully”.
Whereas Brig. Ggwanga could not substantiate his allegations, Prof. Bukenya was in 2011 charged with abuse of office in connection with his role in the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government summit. He was, however, cleared of any wrongdoing.

Other NRM regional vice chairpersons Hajj Abdu Nadduli (central) and Mr Sam Engola (northern) said Prof. Bukenya was free to contest for the presidency but advised that he makes himself “relevant”.