KAMPALA-UGANDA/NEWSDAY: The body of former National Unity Platform (NUP) lead lawyer Anthony Wameli has arrived in the country today Friday, according to his family.
Wameli succumbed to colon cancer at Boston Medical Centre in Massachusetts, US on February 8, 2023, following his admission in September 2021.
After Wameli’s death, information started circulating that his family was stuck and needed over Shs 200 million to return the body. Two weeks after his death, it was said the family had managed to only secure Shs 40 million.
Addressing journalists on Thursday at Ebenezer Faith Ministry in Kanyanya, a church founded by Wameli, deacon Samuel Boloki revealed that preparations for the repatriation of the deceased’s body are complete and the body is expected in the country between 2 pm and 3 pm today March 3.
He explained that the church, family, friends, and NUP worked together to see that Wameli’s body is returned to the country for the final rituals. He dismissed rumours that NUP had abandoned Wameli’s family during the trying period.
Barely a week ago, the NUP leadership said they were working on returning Wameli’s body although the paperwork needed for the repatriation was delayed. The party’s secretary general Lewis Lubongoya made the revelation during a funeral service held at a church in Massachusetts.
Deacon Boloki says that when the body arrives on Friday, it shall be taken to the NUP offices in Kamwokya for public viewing and later to Wameli’s home in Kyetume in Mukono district for a night vigil. The following day, Saturday, the body shall be taken to Ebenezer Faith Church in Kanyanya where a service shall be held and the body viewed again as family and friends celebrate Wameli’s life.
Pastor Moses Omony says that while Wameli was a lawyer, first, he was a pastor who had a calling to serve humanity. He says they shall take forward his vision of serving the ministry and humanity.
Steven Kabalika, another church leader who has known Wameli for over 18 years, says that his legacy shall live on not only as a lawyer but a pastor. He says the church shall celebrate his life and thank God for all he achieved during service.
He says it’s such service that saw Wameli leave his job as a grade one magistrate in Nakasongola to come and serve people. He says perhaps, he couldn’t reconcile his work as a magistrate who issued verdicts to people who he would later find in prisons during his service as a churchman.
Wameli, who represented NUP president Robert Kyagulanyi during his 2021 presidential election petition before the Supreme court, died aged 44 having been born on August 29, 1978. He unsuccessfully attempted to join active politics when he ran for the Bubulo East parliamentary seat in the 2021 general elections.
He was also a human rights lawyer under his company of Wameli & Co, Advocates and rose to fame in 2017 when he defended the suspects in the trial for the murder of the former police spokesperson Andrew Felix Kaweesi.
He also represented Jamil Mukulu, the suspected leader of the rebel Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), jailed former accountant in the Office of the Prime Minister, Geoffrey Kazinda, and former presidential candidate Gen Henry Tumukunde.
On September 10, 2021, the Uganda Law Society (ULS) Annual General Meeting named Wameli as the ‘Criminal Defense lawyer of the Year’ and voted his company as the ‘Law Firm of the Year.’
Do you want to share a story, comment or opinion regarding this story or others, Email us at newsdayuganda@gmail.com Tel/WhatsApp........0726054858
Discussion about this post