President Museveni's Shs 5m condolence token to each of the families that lost loved ones in the inferno caused by fuel spillage from a tanker at Namungoona last weekend has courted controversy.
Besides restating our clear position that it is hardly sustainable for a president to engage in handouts of that kind, and pointing out the irony of supporting families of youth involved in the criminal activity of siphoning fuel (bystanders and passersby excepted), we shall dwell on the drama at the Mulago hospital mortuary.
The hospital mortuary has since seen many people claiming to be next of kin of deceased persons in a desperate bid to lay their hands on the Shs 5m. In several cases different people have made conflicting claims, forcing the police to consider going for DNA tests so as to get to the bottom of the claims.
In one incident, a man turned up to claim the remains of his 'son' but the same remains had already been taken by other people who said they were the deceased's close relatives. The claimant was reportedly asked to present some documents such as a birth certificate or school report to prove his claim.
But such basic information would have been self-explanatory if Uganda had a national identity card system that incorporates every citizen's bio data. With a functional national database, pathologists, the police or any other authority would be able to establish a deceased person's bio information and their closest relatives or next of kin without much ado.
Besides claiming bodies after such eventualities, which in this case was mainly motivated by the president's Shs 5m contribution, there are many cases of unscrupulous people who take advantage of death to defraud legitimate claimants of the deceased's estate by claiming next-of- kin status.
A robust national ID system would help eliminate or at least minimise such bogus claims. In addition, it would also help in planning, fighting crime, as well as in the management of elections. The sooner this much-talked-about tool comes to life, the better for everyone.
Friday 5 July 2013
http://allafrica.com/stories/201307050324.html
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