A 38-year-old Earnest Kato Mugerwa, a resident of Kitaka zone in Busega, Kyengera Town Council whose house caught fire that killed three of his children early this week has amazed relatives when he said that he knew long ago that one of the dead children was fathered by a different man.
Maureen Mbabazi, the mother of the three children, shocked family friends who had gone to collect the bodies from Mulago mortuary when she told them to leave the body of the youngest child Moses Muwanguzi in the mortuary as Kato Mugerwa her husband was not Muwanguzi’s father.
Eky’okuggyawo Ekitongole Ky’emmwanyi Ekya UCDA Gov’t Yayagadde Kubonereza Buganda – Katikkiro
According to Mbabazi’s sister Joan Nambassa, she had accompanied her sister to a pharmacy to buy drugs for one of the children, Darius Lukwago, and left a lit candle as there was a power outage. However, power is said to have come back while the youngest child Muwanguzi was in the sitting room watching TV, whereupon he started playing with the candle and in the process setting the house on fire.
Mugerwa who had retired home earlier, was in the bedroom sleeping and was awakened by his eldest son Marvin Mugerwa who had detected the fire and smoke in the house. They tried to extinguish the fire but were overwhelmed, whereupon they made an alarm seeking assistance.
Mugerwa said he was too grief stricken and became unconscious, and that when he awoke the next morning, he was told that his children had died.
“I and my eldest son were rushed to hospital but the three children had died of suffocation”, he narrated.
Family members were taken aback by the news of Maureen’s pronouncement about the paternity of the last child, and wanted to take even the other two bodies for a DNA test lest they bury them when Mugerwa is not their biological father.
On her wife’s declaration about the youngest child, Mugerwa said he already knew the matter as his wife had told him earlier on, one month after delivery. He said that as a father he was pained by the news but that considering that they had another three children, he decided to forgive her.
He expressed readiness to continue keeping his wife if she decides to come back from where she went to bury the youngest child, adding that he was still in love with her.
Mugerwa’s mother Elizabeth Lukwago Nnaalongo was saddened by her daughter-in-law’s disrespect, and disclosed that she was told that she sometimes leaves her husband in the house and spends nights out.
And his father Jackson Lukwago Ssaalongo said their daughter-in-law has subjected them to great shame, but that as human beings, they have no powers to condemn her. Neighbors consoled the family for losing many children at once in such a tragic manner, but were equally sad that the woman had been cheating on her husband.
Muhammad Atuhairwe said that much as they sympathize with the family for such a loss, they are aggrieved that the children’s mother has been unfaithful to her husband to the extent of producing children by a different man.