The time preceding burial of fallen 37-year-old Kawempe North legislator Muhammad Ssegirinya turned dramatic as the child presentation bonanza turned a new twist, with the number of orphans rising from the earlier declared eight to 20. Family members have resorted to taking the orphans with questionable paternity for DNA tests following their rising number.
In a special sitting by parliament to mourn the fallen MP last Friday, six children were shown to the parliamentarians whereupon Speaker Anita Annet Among pledged to take care of Shifrah Nagirinya, while Information Minister Chris Baryomunsi pledged to provide care for another child whose mother hails from Kanungu, the minister’s birth district.
The following day, more women flocked to the home of Mzee Justine Nakajumba, Ssegirinya’s mother, with more children including a youth of about 15 years who, according to the family members, has never been mentioned by the deceased. By Sunday morning before burial, a total of eight children had been presented to Nyendo-Mukungwe MP Mathias Mpuuga who was close to the family throughout the burial process.
As the burial procession was going on, two more children were brought and planted among the earlier eight, making it a total of ten. And at the other end where NUP leader Kyagulanyi and his team had gathered, another three women brought children with one clad in a T-shirt designed for the orphans.
The other two had bark cloth strips tied around their waists, a Buganda gesture for identifying children of the person being mourned. When a baby aged about nine months was presented as one of the bereaved children, mourners started whispering among themselves, with many trying to compare the child with the period the late Ssegirinya had spent in prison and in sickness.
The mothers who had brought the alleged Ssegirinya’s orphans had sat in the middle of the tent in a strategic position that attracted sympathizers who kept giving them cash handouts (amabugo).
An unidentified sister to the late legislator was heard complaining, saying; “it is unfair for these women to collect cash assistance when there were other orphans gathered elsewhere who also needed assistance.”
Among children who appeared for the first time was seven-year-old Shadia Nakintu whose mother Margaret Nabwami working abroad, had directed her sister Janet Nanjovu of Mawokota to immediately take the child and introduce her to her family. Ssegirinya’s mother, Justine Nakajumba’s worries kept rising and made an appeal to those who had made pledges to honour them because she was worried as to how she would manage to care for Ssegirinya’s children.
Ssegirinya’s uncle, Joseph Kaboggoza of Kasangati where the deceased had a home, admitted to having been told about some of the children before Ssegirinya’s death, adding however that he had never been told about some of them including Nakintu. Most of the children were aged between 5 and ten years.
He appealed to parliament to help the family execute the DNA test requirements, saying for them as the family, they do not have the resources.