Police are being put on the spot for neglecting their own officer who was hit by a dilapidated house in the Mbale City Barracks, after which she died. However, the police say they refunded the medical expenses despite the fact that the deceased’s contract had expired by the time its dilapidated house hit her.
Easther Kansime is said to have died on Wednesday at Mbale Regional Hospital, where she was admitted following the injuries she sustained after she was hit by the walls of her dilapidated apartment in the barracks.
Kansiime, who was a special police constable (SPC) attached to Mbale Central Police Station, was hit by a dilapidated police house which collapsed on her in April 2021 when she was inside her apartment within the barracks.
The house was in the old Lane Section Block No.75 in Police Barracks.
According to an accident report compiled by the Elgon Region Senior Probation and Welfare assistant, Awuma Teddy, the house that hit Kansime had several cracks, leading to several bruises, painful ribs, a swollen leg, among other injuries.
Kansiime’s mother, Irene Muyama, said her daughter became disabled and has been in and out of hospitals since the incident occurred in 2021, but she never received any serious treatment or help from the police who employed her and where she got the injuries that claimed her life. She adds that her daughter lived with pain from the time of the accident until she breathed her last.
She said that her daughter passed away on Wednesday but the body has been lying at the Mbale City Morgue for two days because of a failure to have transport to take the body to Manafwa for burial. Finally, she says it was the deceased’s friends who helped in the fundraising to raise the money that helped her take the body on Friday. She laments that the police have not done anything since the death of her daughter.
A medical report by Mbale regional hospital on the 10th of September 2021 indicated that Kansiime has difficulties passing stool and that she has blood in her stool, which was also hard, following the injury caused by being hit by the wall.
Before her death, Kansiime had told Urn during an interview that when the wall fell on her, she was rushed to the police health center III for medical attention, but due to the seriousness of her injuries, she was referred to Mbale Referral Hospital where she was told to buy her own drugs. She never got any serious form of treatment or help from her bosses in the police, despite her efforts to approach different senior officers both in Mbale and Kampala.
The Police Spokesperson, Senior Commissioner of Police Fred Enanga, using a Whatsapp media forum, however, said that the deceased SPC’s contract had been terminated at the time she got into the accident in the barracks, adding that it was also established that there was no proof that the victim suffered internal injuries due to an injury from the police house and that she had a chronic illness that was in advanced stages.
“The mother and the deceased victim went to police headquarters for a refund, but the medical attachments were not certified by any major hospital in Mbale, apart from a few of them, which was a requirement for audit purposes,” he said. However, the welfare office managed to organize a refund based on the supportive receipts.
