Former security minister Gen Elly Tumwine’s body has been laid to rest at his home in Mukuru, Rwenkoma in Kazo District amidst tears from friends and relatives.
Gen Tumwine died at the age 68.
He breathed his last on Thursday, August 25 at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi where he had been admitted for weeks.
His burial ceremony in Rwenkoma was on August 30 attended by thousands of people, including senior government officials and military officers.
His friends and former colleagues in cabinet, including Enos Tumusiime, Maj Gen (Rtd) Kahinda Otafiire and Sam Kutesa, spoke about the Gen Tumwine they knew and worked with.
His children also paid tribute to their father, hailing him for his love and for the valuable lessons he passed on to them while he still breathed.
His wife and several relatives, including sisters, also had a chance to eulogize him.
Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja presented President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni as the chief mourner.
Museveni had eulogized Gen Tumwine a day earlier during the state funeral ceremony at the Kololo Independence Grounds in Kampala.
The president saluted the man who fired the first shot that sparked off the National Resistance Army (NRA) war. He praised Tumwine for his patriotism.
When the eulogies done, the casket containing Gen Tumwine’s remains was lowered into its final resting places at a few minutes before 5pm local time.
The general was given a 17-gun salute.
Earlier in the day Kahinda Otafiire had revealed Gen Elly Tumwine’s final message to the surviving bush war generals before he died. Otafiire also cursed Ugandans celebrating Gen Tumwine’s death, saying only fools had the guts to quarrel with the dead. (Read Stories Here and There).
