Woman loses husband to bullet wound due to delayed pension

 

Ms Nakajiri has been seeking her late husband’s pension for 19 years. PHOTOs by Abubaker Lubowa 

By Dear Jeanne
 

 

In Summary

Gradace Nakajiri’s husband, who was an army veteran, died of gunshot wounds that turned cancerous due to lack of proper treatment. She says several attempts to get his pension to pay for his treatment were futile.

Kampala

In Konge Trading Centre, Makindye Division, a Kampala suburb, in a ramshackle wooden charcoal store, is the address Ms Gradace Nakajiri, the widow of Lt. Dan Ssemombe gives to all those who want to find her.

A woman in her late 30s, wearing clean but old tattered clothes, was there to welcome me when I visited the place she calls home and work place.

Inside the wooden structure is a basin in the corner, a green polythene bag stuffed with clothes, a tiny stove and a saucepan, evidently the only property she own. She does not smile but her words are kind and precise. “Nsanyuse ku kulaba” (I am happy to see you). She gives me an empty crate of soda to sit on inside the wooden structure as she attends to her customers.

I scan the room, in a corner is papyrus mat folded with a bed sheet peeping out. There are a few cups and plates. The owner of the store has provided her with shelter (in the wooden store) and pays her Shs1,000 for every bag of charcoal she sells for him. To her, he is a saviour sent by God to end her homelessness since her husband died although others believe he is exploiting her.

Death of husband
Her husband, a former UPDF soldier who retired in 1994 after 14 years in the army, died a bitter man in 2005. Lt. Ssemombe, died of gunshot wounds that turned cancerous due to lack of proper treatment. He was one of the first 50 people to join the guerrilla war that brought President Museveni to power in 1986.


He joined the then National Resistance Army rebels from Luweero in 1981. Ms Nakajiri says her husband was denied pension that he could have used to receive proper treatment after his retirement from the Force.

Two months to his death, she had to move him and the children to his village of origin in Luweero. “His condition had worsened and I could not afford to transport his body if he died in Kampala.”

Tears fill her eyes as she narrates her struggles and the feeling of hopelessness. After her husband’s death, tragedy struck again. “I lost one of my children after failing to raise money for her treatment,” she says amidst sobs and keeps quite for several minutes as if trying to take in all the misery that has befallen her family.

Lt. Ssemombe had struggled to secure his pension for 11 years before his death and Ms Nakajiri has been doing the same but it has been 19 years of many promises from the officials at the Public Service ministry but no payment.

Quest for pension
“I have been frequenting the Ministry of Public Service and Finance for eight years now trying to secure what is rightfully ours. For God’s sake, my husband worked for it, fought in the war and even got shot but all I have received are promises,” Ms Nakajiri says.

In March 2012, she had thought her struggle had ended after securing an appointment with the then Pension Principal Accountant, Mr Christopher Obey, who promised that in three months, the money would be in her account. “I went there with another lady who also was trying to secure her pension and he did promise us that everything would be okay. That’s the only time I got a glimpse of hope but he lied to us,” she says.

The last time she went to the Ministry of Public Service was in November 2012 and she was told that due to the ongoing investigations into the pension scam, they had stopped process or paying pension until investigations were complete.

At the rank of a Lieutenant in 1994, Lt. Ssemombe was earning Shs22,170 per month. His pension was calculated at 60 per cent of his salary per month. The gratuity, which he did not receive as well was to be paid an equivalent of his monthly salary for the 14 years he served in the army.

The UPDF Political Commissar, Col. Felix Kulayigye, referred us to the Public Service ministry. The ministry spokesperson, Mr Jonas Tumwines, said it was hard to track records of an individual’s pension file since the ministry handles millions of pension cases. “I can advice the aggrieved to come to our offices and see the concerned head of departments but it is not easy for my office to keep track of an individual’s files,” Mr Tumwine said.

 

Pension scam
Although she prefers to face fate as it is, she cannot stop wondering if her husband’s pension is part of what was stolen. The Police is currently investigating a sophisticated scam masterminded by officials at the Public Service ministry, banks and fraudsters, leading to theft of more than Shs150 billion of pension money over the years

 

The fraudsters are said to be stealing identities of pension beneficiaries in order to facilitate the scam. Mr Obey, who Ms Nakajiri met and he promised to help her get her husband pension is among the interdicted officials.

Others interdicted are the Permanent Secretary in the Public Service ministry, Mr Jimmy Lwamafa, assistant accountants David Oloka and Steven Lwanga as well as Mr Peter Ssajjabi, the national secretary East Africa Beneficiary Association.

They are facing corruption-related cases in court over payments to suspected ghost pensioners.
With tears rolling down her face, cheek resting on her hands, Ms Nakajiri says: “Maybe if I had another means of livelihood I would consider quitting (current job) and trying to get that money but I practically have nowhere to sleep. I need food and school fees for my kids, the good Samaritans who are taking care of my kids may not do so forever.”

To Ms Nakajiri, those who stole money of pensioners are “inhuman”. “I have experienced what it means to be denied what is rightfully yours and I know the tears and words that such a person will speak, no one can have peace with those tears being shed,” she says nodding her head.