KAMPALA – More Ugandans are using poisoning to eliminate their political, family and business rivals, a report from Government Analytical Laboratory indicates.
According to the report, a copy of which PML Daily has seen, cases of poisoning are on the rise in the country, with as many as 1,123 cases recorded at the laboratory in the financial year 2018/2019.
While the report does not indicate the perpetrators and the categories of most people affected, it indicates many others never get to be reported or recorded as many easily attribute such sudden deaths to witchcraft or any other superstitious causes.
The poisoning cases are recorded under the toxicology section, with forensic biology recording 575 deaths, food and drugs 536 and firearms 80. Other deaths as caused by water and environment (80), pesticide residents (29) and microbiology (90).
The report calls for the operationalization of Poison Information Centre to able track the source of such poison.
Fears and allegations of poisoning in recent times have come in thick and fast. A few years ago, Makindye East MP Hussein Kyanjo, a tough government critic, said he feared he had been poisoned following a long illness. The hitherto eloquent Justice Forum (Jeema) secretary-general, who now speaks with difficulty, has since been diagnosed with cancer.
In 12, former Butaleja district woman representative Cerinah Nebanda died at Mukwaya General Hospital, where she was rushed on the evening of 14 December 2012. Police later attributed the legislator’s death to drug consumption.
In 2007, President Museveni insinuated that Noble Mayombo, a former Defence ministry Permanent Secretary, could have been poisoned. Brig. Mayombo fell ill and died of what doctors called multiple organ failure occasioned by acute pancreatitis.
