NEWS- The Kanungu Deputy District Commissioner Gad Ahimbisibwe Rugaju has implored the Orphans whose parents died in Kibwetere Incident in Kanungu to remaim calm as the concerned officials from the office of the Prime Minister verify their names for eventual compensation.
Ahimbisibwe Rugaju made the remarks on Thursday while addressing over 200 people known as the “Orphans whose parents died in Kibwetere Incident in Kanungu” who converged at Kanungu District Headquarters to interface with the officials from the Office of the Prime Minister who are in the district to verify their names.
The verification comes after President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni met the beneficiaries and directed the office of the Prime Minister to conduct a verification exercise and ensure that the claimants get Ugx 5 million each.
According to Team Leader of Orphans whose parents died in Kibwetere Incident in Kanungu, Iediidi Boaz whose mother Angelica Kizza from Kigarama village in Nyamirama Subcounty died on the inferno, they were originally 592 claimants but the number has been cut to 155 after some of them failed to get National Identity Card as a first step for verification.
However, Deputy RDC Ahimbisibwe Rugaju assured them the verification team will do whatever it can to ensure that even those who are not on the list are verified because there must be a history in their villages that allude to the fact that they are genuine claimants.
Meanwhile the verification exercise has hit a snag after some orphans claimed that a number of people not known to them have been sneaked into the list yet none of their relatives died in the infamous Kibwetere Inferno that happened on 17th March 2000 in then Kanungu Sub District which was at the time still part of Greater Rukungiri.
It’s reported that a number of people from Ntungamo, Mitooma, Fort Portal, Mubende and Rakai have been included on the list yet bona-fide orphans whose real parents died in the inferno after selling off their land and leaving them as destitute were left out of the final list.
The complainants said that they will appeal to President Yoweri Museveni to ensure that they are reinstated on the list despite failing to provide National Identity Cards who’s is the current basis for verification.
Deputy RDC Ahimbisibwe Rugaju however, said that the verification exercise by the office of the Prime Minister will vindicate the genuine claimants from the masqueraders so that there is equity in the exercise.
