By Solomon Hamala
IGANGA
Residents of Magoola village, Buwunga Sub County witnessed drama when a 20 year old student who had been presumed dead and buried turned up at his parents’ home.
Rogers Waninga, a senior three student of Bukooli integrated high school located in Buwunga Sub County had been presumed dead and buried on January 13 this year at his ancestral home in Magoola village.
The burial occurred after a decomposing body with some body parts was discovered by police in Wangoobo village Buyanga Sub County in Bugweri district and the parents were convinced it was their son.
How it all started
The student reportedly disappeared from their home on December 14 last year and parents decided to put up several radio announcements besides reporting to police in an effort to recover him in vain.
After giving up on the search, police in the neighboring Bugweri district discovered a decomposing body of a man they believed was the student who had been reported missing from their home and alerted parents who rushed to the scene and identified him as the real person.
Police later allowed the family to proceed with the burial ceremony well knowing that it was the real person who had gone missing.
However family members were shocked today 22nd February 2021 when Waninga finally returned home.
A group of locals and some family members who were seated at the home took off through banana plantations after Waninga came back moreover accessing the home from the direction where a grave was.
Waninga who looked surprised tried to stop them from escaping but they just simply ignored leaving his lame father Dan Basalirwa alone at home.
Basalirwa who also looked terrified said he was shocked that his son who had been presumed dead was finally turning up at their home.
He later alerted locals who returned back saying this was not a ghost but his real son who had been presumed dead.
The family later went to Bugiri central police station seeking permission to retrieve the remains of the person who had been buried in order to be taken to the public mortuary.
However the officer in charge criminal investigations department CID, Peter Tindyebwa declined to grant the family permission to retrieve the body saying it would be disturbing the peace of the dead.
Tindyebwa said members of the family had earlier been asked by police to do a DNA test on the body that had been discovered in Wangoobo swamp before burying but they simply ignored.
“If they had listened to my advice this would not have happened,” he said.
Waninga while speaking to the media shortly after said he decided to escape from home to Busia border after discovering that his parents could not afford money to buy basic necessities at home besides food yet he was just at home without attending studies due to COVID 19.
While in Busia he decided to work as a casual laborer in a maize mill where he would earn between shillings 4000 to 5000 daily.
