Family Members Want Dr Mutoro’s Body Repatriated

Family members of Ugandan doctor who died of Ebola in Liberia are demanding for repatriation of his body.

Dr Sam Muhumuza Mutoro, 45, succumbed to the deadly virus on Tuesday at JFK Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia. Mutoro was working in Redemption Hospital, Monrovia, under the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW).

While laying a wreath on Mutoro’s portrait placed on the chair at St. James Cathedral Ruharo in Mbarara municipality on Thursday, family members said they expected the body to be embalmed before being repatriated back home immediately.

This was during a requiem service organized by Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) medical practitioners and lecturers to celebrate Mutoro’s life and bury him by placing lit candles on his portrait. Mutoro studied and worked at MUST before going to Liberia in five years ago.

Diana Mutoro, the wife of the deceased says she tried to travel to Liberia to pay last respects to her husband but was blocked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.  Diana says it’s sad the body of her husband has not been given a decent burial at his ancestral home in Lhubiriha, Kasese district.

Reverend Johaida Baluku Mutoro, a brother to the deceased demanded the repatriation of the body since it will be Ebola free after 21 days.

Dr. Rose Muhindo Lukaya, a cousin to the deceased says that since Ebola victims are normally monitored within 21 days which gives them hope that the body of Dr Mutoro can be repatriated without any scare of spreading the disease.

John Baptist Mujuni, a senior lecturer at MUST where the late studied asked the UN for compensation. Mujuni says Uganda as a country must also do something to recognize Dr Mutoro’s contribution and that of other medical workers that die while trying to save lives. Mujuni says Dr Mutoro died on a mission trying save other people’s lives.

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