The enigma that Nebanda death probe turned out to be Allow me to a make a few remarks on your story “Fresh questions over Nebanda’s death” that run in the Sunday Monitor on December 28, 2014. Prof Henry Wabinga came to court not to testify against me as such, but to tell court the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Prof Wabinga told the court that the two of us (Prof Wabinga and I) collectively took off samples from the body of Cerinah Nebanda and that we took off so many samples that he did not count the exact number. He further told court that during the post-mortem process, we observed every aspect of medical ethics and as far as he was concerned, there was nothing unlawful that we did. I believe Prof Wabinga’s testimony went a long way in making the court rule that we had no case to answer. The decision to take the second set of samples to South Africa for an independent analysis was taken by Prof Wabinga, Dr Chris Baryomunsi (also Kinkiizi East MP) and myself, during a meeting the three of us had shortly after the post-mortem of Nebanda. One of the reasons why an independent analysis was necessary was the incompetence of the Government Analytical Laboratories (GAL) in Wandegeya, Kampala. Sometime back, a very vital witness in a high profile case died under very mysterious circumstances in Luzira prison. At autopsy, no anatomical cause of death could be established. Samples were taken and sent for analysis in GAL which did not find any poison in the victim’s body. However, in the same samples sent to South Africa, it was found that the victim had been given lignocaine, a chemical which when given intravenously, causes the heart to stop functioning. During our trial, the investigating officer was asked why the police stopped me from taking the samples to South Africa. His answer was “we know he would come back with results that were different from ours.” This honestly speaks volumes. Going by your story in the Sunday Monitor, the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, was informed that I was not present during the post-mortem of Nebanda and that I had obtained the samples stealthily. He is supposed to have rushed with this story to the President but my question is; why did Gen Kayihura not crosscheck this information? He had the capacity to do so. Was this intentional or an oversight or sheer incompetence? We were 19 people in the post-mortem room, including senior police officers who could have told the police chief what transpired. In any civilised community, the police chief would have taken responsibility for his actions and done the honourable thing – resign. Short of this, he should have been fired. But in this banana republic of ours, such things are but dreams. The writer is a consultant pathologist at Mulago National Referral Hospital monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/The-enigma-that-Nebanda-death-probe-turned-out-to-be/-/689844/2577452/-/r70n1pz/-/index.html
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 09:15:47 +0000
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