A huge section of the public has vehemently rejected a narrative peddled by the top administration of Kawempe national referral hospital that a newly born baby’s corpse was eaten by a rat at the facility.
The parents of the deceased insist their baby was a victim of ritual sacrifice.
Other family members maintain there was a likelihood of body swap at Kawempe hospital and have since asked Police to investigate the matter.
The baby who was born prematurely at eight and half months at a private clinic in Rubaga was referred for nursery care and the parents opted for Kawempe national referral hospital.
On July 20, the parents arrived at the hospital, the infant was admitted in nursery and 3 days later it was placed on oxygen before being pronounced dead on the same day.
Sulaiman Waiswa, 30, and his wife Yvone Ainembabazi (parents) expressed dismay after learning of reports by the doctors that the baby’s face was partially eaten by a rat.
The parents said they didn’t see their child’s body before it was taken to the mortuary.
Parents further told police there attempts by some doctors to blocking them from accessing the body before and after it was taken to the mortuary.
Fred Mutebi, the deceased grandfather added that after a long protracted battle, the hospital granted them access to the body only to find a deep hole inflicted on the face and the forehead.
Mutebi said there is no way you could recognize the face compelling family members to suggest there was a swap or part of the face was removed for ritual sacrifice.
The doctors at the hospital then blamed the family for leaving the body in the mortuary without a coffin.
Questions
However, bodies are kept in fridges, while other laid on the floor in all mortuaries in Uganda. How again would this child be special to be kept in a coffin?
Was that weak defence by the hospital since the child had been swapped for a corpse?
Was the child’s body kept in a fridge? If yes, how did a rat enter the fridge?
Suppose, the body was laid on the floor, was it the only corpse with rat wounds?
Had there been similar cases at the hospital of a rat eating a body?
Kampala Metropolitan Police Spokesman Patrick Onyango yesterday said that the parents cited these series of “suspicious” events to lodge a complaint for formal inquiries into the cause of the demise of their baby and the alleged incision. “We have opened up a death inquiry file to investigate [the] circumstances under which a premature baby died. We are also investigating circumstances under which the rat gained access to where the bodies are kept. We need to confirm all that,” he said. That inquiry commenced yesterday with police moving the body of the child to Kampala Capital City Mortuary in Mulago for autopsy.
Also samples have also been extracted from Ainembabazi for a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test to ascertain if she is the biological mother of the deceased or whether her child had been swapped for a corpse.
