Court blocks former minister's wife burial

SOROTI - Tension is high in Soroti as the High Court has issued an interim order stopping the burial of Rose Alupo, the wife of former Justice Minister Cuthbert Obwangor.

The order follows a miscellaneous application filed by Alupo's stepdaughters, Angela Margaret Itinot and Rosemary Atim, who describe the deceased in their affidavit as a stranger in their home.

The court order restrains the respondents, including the clan chairman of Ikouba-Ikaribwok, Gerald Irimo and the burial committee chairman Jorem Opian Obicho, from transporting and burying Alupo's body in Kiiya village, Katakwi district, until the final disposal of the application.

The women state that they are true administrators of the estate of the late Obwangor, who was their biological father.

The body was set to be taken to the home on Friday, but everything was halted after the court order was served.

Sources report that the clan chairman and burial committee were surprised and confused by the development.

Bereaved relatives attempted to take the body to court but remained stranded with the body after entry was denied.

After hours, they agreed to take the body to the townhome where mourners gathered on Friday.

A funeral van carrying the body of Rose Alupo being parked outside court on Friday. (Credit: Godfrey Ojore)

Ground of the petition

“The respondent’s actions of wanting to forcefully bury a stranger in our home is causing us emotional pain and mental torture which cannot be atoned for, in monetary terms,” the applicants said in their affidavit filed by their lawyer M/S Engulu and Co. Advocates.

There is also a pending suit in the High court family division at Kampala in which one of the issues for determination is whether the late Alupo was legally married to their father.

Family sources state that the family battle relates to issues of the paternity of the children of the deceased, with the children of the different co-wives contesting the paternity.
Obwangor, who died in 2012, married four women, with the deceased being the last. The court order has sparked a heated debate within the family.

“This is wrong, it's putting our clan to a big shame! Our daughters have done one of the worst things,” lamented Papuras Imodot, a relative of Obwngor and the founder and paramount chief of Iteso.

He dismissed the grounds of the deceased being referred to as a stranger, saying that he attended the traditional marriage of Alupo.

“It's laughable and at the same time shameful for mature ladies to go to court over that, yet we who participated in that marriage are still alive,” Imodot said.

By press time, the body was being organised to be taken back to the morgue until Monday, when court will deliver its verdict.