allAfrica.com: Uganda: What Killed Mayombo? (Page 1 of 2)

At the memorial service for the late Brig. Noble Mayombo at St John's Cathedral in Fort Portal on Thursday, Deputy Chief of Defence Forces, Ivan Koreta, thanked the family for not listening to rumours about Mayombo's death but wait for the release of the inquest report.

But a relative who spoke earlier decried the government's silence on the matter.

Two days before the anniversary, Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga told Parliament that a report into the May 1, 2007 death of the Defence permanent secretary had been handed to the President. Now the air is filled with talk that not one but three reports on the death were compiled.

But even before the government releases the reports to the public, if it ever does, various questions are being raised about the conduct of the investigations.

Inside Politics has learnt that even the Mayombo's closest relatives are to this day still wondering how an investigation could be conducted and a report produced without talking to a single relative yet they are the ones who managed his situation from the time he first fell sick.

Brig. Mayombo who previously served as Aide de Camp (ADC) deputy head to the President and later Chief of Military Intelligence before being appointed Permanent Secretary died on May 1, 2007 at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi to where he was transferred after two top hospitals in Kampala failed to manage his situation.

Doctors said then that he had suffered multiple organ failure after his pancreas burst. He was first admitted to Kololo Hospital on Thursday April 26, 2007 but quickly transferred to International Hospital Kampala where he spent another two days.

In its latest issue, the bi-monthly The Independent newsmagazine reported on Friday that investigators had zeroed in on pacreatitis as the cause of Mayombo's death. The investigation announced by President Museveni during the late Mayombo's burial was led by Brig. James Mugira assisted by two doctors, an army bio-chemist Lt. Col. Dr Tugasirwe Rusoke and another official. The investigation was conducted in camera.

But Inside Politics has closely followed the investigation by keeping in contact with numerous relatives who cannot be named here for privacy reasons but their answer is a uniform amusement that they were never interviewed in the investigations.

"Because the family members were close to him from the time he fell sick, to the time of his death they have information vital to the investigators but none was interviewed," one of Mayombo's family members told Inside Politics. The family member said if the investigators suspected Brig. Mayombo died of excessive drinking or had a bad medical history or a problem unknown to the public, his family would have filled the gaps for them.

The source said apart from the family, there were concerns about Mayombo's death that were raised during the processions and vigils but it appears none of them were of interest to the investigators.

The head of the investigating team, Brig. Mugira, who is the Armoured Brigade Commander based in Masaka, promised to return our calls but did not. If indeed the family was not interviewed, where does it leave the report? Did the investigators consider their input inconsequential or got their views through third parties?

Isn't this development an oversight given that it was the family members who rushed Mayombo to hospital after realising his condition was deteriorating before any government official came in?

Speaking at the Thursday memorial service, the Dean of St. John's Cathedral, Mr Patrick Kyaligonza, said the people of Tooro and the country at large are anxiously waiting to know the contents of the probe report.

"People of Toro are anxiously waiting to know what is in the report but much more they would like to know that the President, who is the fountain of honour, believes the contents of this report," the Dean told the gathering which included Mayombo's father, the Rev. Canon James Rabwoni, the widow Juliet, children, Lt. Gen. Koreta, Brig. Mugira, relatives and friends. "It is our right as Batooro and Ugandans to know what killed Brig. Mayombo. We can't rest until the government releases the report and we know how our son died."

Inside Politics was informed four months after Mayombo's death that President Museveni offered Canon Rabwoni the job of presidential advisor on culture as a consolation since the family's biggest breadwinner was gone but apparently he turned it down.

The late Mayombo's family, which commands reasonable respect among the Batooro, has strongly supported President Museveni having contributed two sons in Mayombo and his younger brother Okwiri Rabwoni to the NRM struggle early on. Apart from the Mugira investigation report, the government has not given word on the other investigations done at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi, and in South Africa and in the UK.

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