The Minister for Security, Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi has revealed that the government has started plans to repatriate the body of former army representative Gen Elly Tumwine and then a detailed burial programme is announced to the country.
Muhwezi made this revelation as lawmakers joined the rest of the country to mourn the fallen soldier who succumbed to lung cancer on Thursday morning Nairobi, Kenya where he has been getting treatment.
“We shall be coming up with the programme to lay him to rest. We shall work as per your guidance with the leader of opposition to pay tribute to Gen Tumwine” he said.
As the country awaits the burial arrangements to confirm when Gen Tumwine will lay in state, Kira Municipality legislator, Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda emphasized the need for the government to table policy guidelines on who should be taken to Parliament and also accorded an official burial.
“There was a call from Parliament to standardize the sending off of colleagues and other senior public officers. There was supposed to be a policy on official funerals. This would be a time for us to be guided on who qualifies for what in death” he said.
Ssemujju Nganda however urged the government to standardise state burials as well as tributes paid to MPs, saying that Parliament made a recommendation to that effect.
“There was a time here when we had a problem; a former colleague from Eastern Uganda died and was not brought and our colleagues from Eastern Uganda were not happy,” he said.
The Deputy Speaker then directed the government to work on the said guidelines and table them before Parliament for approval.
Tayebwa also extended an olive branch to Ugandans to always engage with the leadership of Parliament on the details of people who have made distinguished contributions to the country, so that special tributes can be paid after they depart.
Godfrey Katusabe, MP Bukonjo County West described Tumwine as a distinguished son who served the country wholeheartedly.
“My deepest condolences to the President who is Commander in Chief and the UPDF,” Katushabe said.
Tumwine served as UPDF representative in Parliament from 1996 to 2021. He also served as a Minister for security from 2018 to 2021.
At the time of his death, Tumwine was a senior presidential adviser.