ONE of the two UPDF peacekeepers killed recently in Somalia was buried over the weekend at…
ONE of the two UPDF peacekeepers killed recently in Somalia was buried over the weekend at his ancestral home in Kibula, Luwero district. Private Eriya Kabuye, 33, was killed by militants in the Mogadishu capital on June 3.
He had been attached to the Somali State House as one of the official presidential drivers.
Kabuye, who left a wife and three children, joined the army in 2003.
Lt. Michael Turiraba, a political commissar in the office of the UPDF’s chief of personnel and administration, on Saturday said Kabuye was killed by a mortar bomb as he returned to his base after dropping off Somali president Sheikh Ahmed Shalif at the airport.
Addressing mourners during the burial, Turiraba said Kabuye and a colleague, whose identity he did not disclose, were killed when a mortar bomb was fired at a parked car in which they were seated.
A death certificate from the African Union peacekeeping mission headquarters in Mogadishu, which was read to the mourners during the burial, stated that the soldier died of ‘severe burns from a massive bomb blast’.
Tempers flared during the funeral when soldiers blocked relatives from viewing Kabuye’s remains.
The soldiers insisted that they had instructions not to open the coffin.Viewing the body is part of the traditional last respects.
The commander of the UPDF peacekeeping contingent in Somalia, Col.Tumusiime Katsigazi, described Kabuye as an exemplary soldier.
In addition to buying the coffin, the army contributed sh300,000 to the construction of the grave and gave sh1m to the bereaved family.
Burundi and Uganda are the only contributors to the 5,000 AMISOM force in the war-torn Somalia. A total of 8,000 soldiers are needed.
About 38 soldiers have been killed since the force first deployed in March 2007. Of these, 19 were Ugandans.
