The family of the late Rev Fr Peter Kasooli Bwayo, whose body has been lying in the mortuary for the past seven months after it was exhumed, has decided to delay the reburial plans after learning that Centenary Bank has attached the deceased’s property over nonpayment of a loan.

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Mr Clement Bwayo, the deceased’s elder brother, told Saturday Monitor that the family is struggling to raise Shs13m to manage the reburial arrangements, was shocked by Centenary Bank’s decision to put the late priest’s property at Bugema in Mbale Town on.
“The bank has written on the perimeter wall ‘quick sale by Centenary Bank,” Mr Bwayo said.

Background

The deceased’s remains were exhumed on March 23 by police pathologists following a court order by Mbale magistrate’s court.
The family wanted police to investigate the cause of the priest’s death on June 20, 2014 while he was serving as a missionary in Tampa, Florida in the United States.
Police pathologist Moses Byaruhanga and the Government Analytical Laboratory have since failed to find the cause of death.
The body, which had been embalmed in the US before being flown home remains in the Mbale Municipal Mortuary.
Mr Bwayo said the bank claims that in August 2015, a year after Fr Peter Bwayo’s burial at his ancestral home in Muyembe, Bulambuli District, a man called Mr Nickson Mwebaze bearing documents of powers of attorney, secured a Shs140m loan from Centenary Bank Entebbe Road branch.
He allegedly mortgaged the property which houses a residential house and a yet to be opened medical centre.
“As a family we are wondering how Mwebaze, who is not even our relative, attained powers of attorney from our late brother posthumously. We have only remained two brothers, I and Mr Mathew Bwayo, who is the next of kin of the late deceased,” Mr Clement Bwayo wondered.
Mr Bwayo, who revealed that the family learnt of the Centenary Bank’s interest in the family property in August, said the land title was stolen from the late priest’s residential house and has since been found in the bank’s possession.

No particulars
Sources have since told this newspaper that a loans officer only identified as Baguma, who sanctioned the Shs140m loan to Mr Mwebaze, has since been laid off.
The particulars of Mr Mwebaze, who tendered to the Bank what the family describes as “forged powers of attorney” remain scanty.

The family alleges that fraudsters used the photo of the deceased’s next of kin and put it alongside the names of Peter Bwayo to sign the powers of attorney as witnessed by a one Ms Safina referred to as his wife.
“Our brother died in celibacy since he was a priest. To know that these fraudsters conned the bank, they came up with a person called Safina and said she was his wife,” Mr Clement Bwayo said.

The deceased’s next of kin, who recently quit the Roman Catholic Church, has filed an application in the Land Commission to put a caveat on the property.

Dail monitor