Many left Nakiliro village, Kayunga District unsatisfied after being barred from viewing the body of fallen businessman Ivan Semwanga by his family and minders.
This action lent credence to earlier social media speculation that the father of three was still alive and had faked his death to avoid an alleged Us$500 million deal gone bad, which would have ended with his swagger-filled return from Lebanon from where he was said he undergoing plastic surgery to change his facial appearance.
TheUgandan understands that the few family members who were allowed to view Semwanga’s body were shoved away after a few seconds and none was allowed to take a phone camera photo of the deceased’s body.
Ugandan journalists who had moved nearer to the casket were barred from snapping away while the chosen few mourners who had viewed Semwanga’s body were told not to even move any closer.
The burial took place on Tuesday, two days after the deceased’s body arrived from South Africa and taken to his house in Muyenga. To most mourners’ dismay, a selected few were then on Sunday night allowed to view his body and for only a short time in dim lighting.
From Muyenga, there was no further viewing of Ivan Semwenga’s body at his Namirembe Cathedral funeral service on Monday and the casket was then closed off until burial the following day in Kayunga at 04.30 pm Ugandan time.
All those who had spent the proceeding 48hours at the vigil in Kayunga also never got a glimpse of the late businessman’s body, according to sources.
Doubtful mourners insist the Semwanga’s casket was buried empty while other sections say a different body was buried instead of the late flamboyant businessman’s.
But Semwanga’s family insists that they stopped mourners from viewing his body because it had been deformed especially the face due to the brain surgery done at Steve Biko Hospital and treatment in the mortuary in South Africa. After reaching Kampala over the weekend, A-Plus Funeral services also took the body to their Mengo facility and did more treatment.
“Ever since Ssemwanga fell ill, many things have been said about him; like announcing him dead before he was, calling him an illuminati and that he had faked his death because of debts,” the deceased’s manager Henry Kato said at the burial ceremony.
He added that the decision to bar the viewing of the body and the taking of pictures was made back in South Africa by his family and close associates.
