Masaka City public cemetery has been turned into a garden, leaving the city without a gazetted place where to bury unclaimed bodies.
The Kamirampango cemetery located on Masaka-Mbarara Bypass at Kasijjagirwa Village in Kimaanya-Kabonera Division, currently sits on approximately three acres of land.
Mr David Musisi, a resident in the area, said the public cemetery is holding thousands of unclaimed human remains and the people who have turned it into farmland are not known in the area.
“Around March, we saw a group of people one evening at around 7pm performing some rituals. A group of young men came and started spraying and digging holes where they planted maize,” Mr Musisi told Monitor on Monday.
He added that the residents were concerned by the way the remains were handled as some were reportedly packed into sacks and taken to unknown locations, while others were burnt to ash.
One resident, who preferred anonymity, said they suspect the encroachers to be powerful people who have influenced the city leadership because many attempts to grab the remaining part of the cemetery land by different individuals have been fought over time.
Mr Adrian Lule, the chairperson of Kijjabwemi Ward, said Kamirampango is a public land and they don’t expect any farming in a cemetery.
“After planting the maize, the current occupants brought a big container and last week, they started fencing off part of the land and erecting temporary structures. It appears they want to erect permanent structures after harvesting the maize,” he said.
Mr Tonny Ssempijja, the Masaka City speaker, told this publication that Kamirampango land is a property of Masaka City.
“Those who planted maize on the cemetery land are trespassers and they stand warned,” he said, adding that whatever structures they plan to erect there will be demolished.
Masaka City Mayor Florence Namayanja declined to comment on the matter and referred this reporter to the city clerk, Mr Vincent Okurut, who said he needed time to study the issue since he has only been in office for two months.
However, former Masaka mayor Godfrey Kayemba Afaayo said many people had encroached on the cemetery land, which forced his council to pass a resolution to sell it to sitting tenants and procure a bigger piece of land outside the city centre to house a new cemetery.
“A resolution was passed to change land use, but by the time I left office, it had not yet been implemented,” he said.
Recently, some leaders of Masaka City raised concern over the alleged loss of 20 land titles for properties owned by the city, with the affected properties including Kkumbu Playground, Masaka Regional Referral Hospital mortuary, the newly constructed Masaka Central Market, Katwe Market, Masaka Bus terminal, and mayor’s chamber.
Background
Last year, Masaka City authorities halted construction works where a private developer had started erecting a car washing bay on part of the cemetery land.
Kamirampango public cemetery was used to bury unclaimed bodies from Masaka Regional Referral Hospital, mainly those killed in robberies and accidents. On average, the hospital receives four unclaimed bodies daily besides those of patients who die at the facility.
The colonial government had put aside 10 acres of land for the public cemetery, but unscrupulous staff attached to Masaka District land board have over the years been parceling it out to individuals.
Unauthorised acquisition of plots on the cemetery land started in 2013 when a number of developers started partitioning plots and building houses.
