Hundreds of mourners on Monday turned up for the burial of the four family members out of the nine people who perished in a nasty road accident that occurred on Masaka-Mbarara highway on Good Friday. The deceased included; the father of the family, Christopher Ntege Ssenoga (37), his wife, Cindy Butesi (29), their children, Jayden Alvin Nsibambi Ntege (5) and Giana Florence Nabakka Ntege (3).
Ntege who was an employee of Uganda Breweries Limited resided at Kyaliwajjala Cell in Kira Municipality.
The accident occurred at Kyoja trading Centre in Kinoni sub-county, Lwengo district. The bishop of Mukono, Enos Kitto Kagodo led the requiem service at St. James Church Ggwafu in Seeta Archdeaconry, in Mukono Municipality.
Ntege is a son of the late Christopher Ssenoga and Florence Ssenoga of Seeta whereas Butesi is a daughter to the late Johnson Byamukama and Rose Kankunda Byamukama of Rukungiri district.
Bp. Kagodo asked the relatives of the deceased not to mourn and lament over this unusual incident that left the whole family dead at once asking God why such an incident could have happened.
“Let’s not just curse God for this, but pick a lesson that the bodies that most of the time make us brag about are nothing. We should therefore be prepared so that if such a moment comes to your life, you go to a clean person who accepted Jesus as your personal saviour,” the bishop said.
Erisa Mukasa Nkoyoyo, the Mukono Municipality Mayor showed dismay for the loss of such a useful couple not only to the community but also to the nation at large.
Nkoyoyo blamed the increased fatal road accidents today on road constructors who are non-patriotic saying most of them decide to do shoddy works whereas others do completely out of the agreed designs in the bills of quantities.
“We cannot blame the government because of the escalating accidents on our roads. For sure, the government has done a lot as far as funding different road constructions is concerned. The only problem is the unpatriotic road constructors who decide to swindle the money and end up doing sub-standard works,” he said.
Florence Ssenoga, the mother of Ntege said out of seven children she produced, he was very exceptional at doing things which others were not doing.
Ssenoga asked her remaining children not to lose hope because their role model has gone saying the good thing they have also been seeing what he has been doing.
“He started working with Multi-Consults Limited which singled him out before he finished studying at Kyambogo University. At that tender age, he started looking after his siblings. I thank the directors in that company for having nurtured him into what he became,” she said.
From the church, the bodies were taken to his burial ground at Namayuba village in Nakisunga sub-county, Mukono district and they reached there at 2:30pm. His mother said he bought that land, started developing it and requested to be buried there.
The send-off of Ntege and his family members was attended by hundreds of mourners who came from different walks of life. Tears rolled on the mourners’ cheeks whereas others cried loudly as they saw the four caskets being removed from the Funeral vans.
Ntege’s current work station is Uganda Breweries Limited. Yunus Kuero from Kenya who was his fellow workmate who represented the company described him as an outstanding member of staff who loved his work and had team work.
Faridah Nampiima, the Traffic Police Spokesperson said that the accident involved a head-on collusion of vehicles, Alphard registration number UBL 314C and a fuel truck registration number SSD 327S/SSD 137Q.
Nampiima said that the Alphad car was traveling from Kampala heading to Mbarara side whereas the fuel truck was from Mbarara/Kinoni town heading to Kampala side.
Other people who died in that accident were Mercy Nakaweesa and her husband Francis Bbaale who was a staff of National Water and Sewerage Corporation. Others are; Wycliffe Kabugo, Samuel Mutyaba and Joseph Sserunkuuma.
The driver of the fuel truck and his turn man sustained severe injuries and they were rushed to Masaka referral hospital for medical attention.