A presidential send-off worth Shs 100m in condolences was not enough to mitigate the pain former Vice President Mustafa Adrisi's relatives are still smarting from as they watched him die a miserable man at Mulago hospital, on Sunday.

Adrisi, 91, who was Uganda's vice president (1977-1978) under former president Idi Amin, had been bedridden for about four years with hypertension and diabetes. Adrisi was moved from Arua, West Nile in 2009 for more specialised medical care in Kampala. He could not right away get admitted at Mulago hospital so he sought refuge at his friend's home, a lady only identified as Rose in Bweyogerere, a Kampala suburb.

According to the deceased's daughter Toma Mustafa, Rose gave the former VP a corner in her sitting room, where he put a mattress that he slept on until Obongi MP Hassan Kaps Fungaroo mobilised groups of people to go and visit the ailing General.

"Out of pressure by the opposition leaders, the president came in and government rented for him a house in Kiwatule but it has also failed to clear the rent arrears," Toma told this writer.

Fungaroo, in a separate interview, told us that before government rented the Kiwatule house, Rose was put under pressure to stop Adrisi's visitors because the condition under which he lived was embarrassing to the government.

"That house in Kiwatule was rented in November 2010, and the government paid for its rent up to 2011 (November). Since then they have not paid anything, and the landlord Prof Odoi Adome has been on these people's necks demanding for his money," Fungaroo told The observer.

The 2nd Deputy Prime minister Gen Moses Ali had moments earlier told a special sitting of Parliament that government had footed Adrisi's medical bills as well as renovated his 19-bedroom house in Arua, as well as covering all the funeral expenses.

"Even if you are in the opposition, you should give credit where it is due. His house of 19 bed rooms, 21 washrooms and two boys quarters in Arua was fully refurbished by the government, and the president had ordered that he receives a top-up upkeep of Shs 4m every month, in addition to the arrangement of the ministry of Public Service in regard to former leaders," Moses Ali told Parliament.

But Toma told us her father has not regularly received the money Moses Ali talked of in Parliament.

"It [the money] would come like this month and you take several months without receiving it, and the house in Arua, yes it is true they renovated it but still out of pressure from opposition leaders who had started mobilising for funds to have it renovated...," she said.

In Keri village, Koboko district where Gen Adrisi is scheduled to be laid to rest today, the house is going to be another embarrassment to the government because since it was bombed in 1978, it has not been renovated.

"They [government]promised to build for him a house in Kampala and to support his children who are still at school, but none of this has been done," she told us.

After the toppling of Amin's government in 1978, Adrisi fled to Yei in the present-day South Sudan where he lived in exile until 1987, when he returned and lived a quiet life in Arua. He was later used by the government as a counter insurgency agent against the Uganda National Rescue Front (UNRF), a rebel outfit that he had helped establish.

According to Fungaroo, most of the promises government made to him (Adrisi) were in appreciation for the role he played in getting the UNRF rebels out of the bush. Indeed Moses Ali told Parliament that he gave up rebel activity at Adrisi's urging.

Controversies:

His death on Sunday triggered a cold war between officials in the Office of Prime Minister, ministry of Public Service and office of the President according to a source. This was after President Museveni ordered that Shs 100m be committed to his funeral.

Some officials in the three offices wanted to control the money while others wondered why such a big sum was being committed to the funeral.

As the body lay in state at Parliament on Tuesday, Muslim funeral norms were ignored. His body was dressed in military fatigues with full honours of a General. As the body left Parliament for Old Kampala mosque, it was undressed and wrapped in white sheets, and carried in a jeneza into the mosque. On the flight to Arua, it was returned to the coffin.

Museveni mourns:

The special Parliamentary sitting was delayed for 37 minutes to allow President Museveni pay his last respects.

During his 20-minute stay, he signed the condolence book and had a private chat with one of the widows, Sauda Mustafa, in Parliament's VIP room. To the other mourners, he said, pole sana (sorry). Gen Adrisi is survived by 35 children and six widows.