Family demands inquiry into death of mother at Watoto Children’s Home 

The family of a former staff of Watoto Children’s Home in Omoro district is demanding a police inquiry into her death. 

Joyce Lamunu, 59, died at Watoto Children’s Home Laminadera after reportedly eating substances laced with poison and gross negligence from the management of the institution. Lamunu worked at Watoto Children’s Home Laminadera for 13 years where she served as a senior mother. 

According to reports from the family, the deceased did not have records of any health complications and had spoken to her daughter Joan Apiya just a few hours before on the same day she died. The family notes that in a recent conversation with the deceased, she had expressed worries that some children at the children’s home had been nabbed with toxic substances and threatened to kill some of their colleagues.  

Andrew Otim, the deceased’s elder brother says that the management of Watoto never informed the family about the demise of Lamunu but instead took her body to Gulu Independent hospital in Gulu.

 

“We’re here to appeal to you and to any society, anybody in Uganda, anybody in Gulu to fully ensure that issues already in police custody, the statement we have sent them, the autopsy, the examination they are going to look at, the postmortem report is indeed transparent for everybody to see. And we appeal to anybody associated with Watoto leadership to help in bringing this culprit to book without any coverup,” said Otim. 

He further says that circumstances surrounding the death of Lamunu could be linked to suspected poisoning, following a postmortem report conducted on her body by a police pathologist at Gulu Central police station. The deceased was scheduled to take her official leave on the same day she died.  

However, her daughter Apiya disclosed that during her last conversation with her mother on the phone, she told her that she’d been denied the leave by the management. A report from Gulu hospital dated June 15 contradicts reports that Lamunu died at their health facility. It says that she was already dead on arrival and her body was treated about six hours later.  

‘’This client was brought dead on arrival and treatment of the body was done 6 hours later from arrival time with formalin,” reads the medical report signed by Dr Sserunkuma, a medical officer at Gulu hospital. The doctor further recommended for a postmortem be done.

A postmortem report dated June 14, 2023 by pathologists headed by Dr Onen J.J Olwedo, a principal medical officer at Gulu Central police station indicates that Lamunu had internal injuries and died of hemorrhagic shock.  

According to the report, the deceased suffered internal injuries and presented a dark hemorrhagic stomach, bloody gastric content, and ruptured gastric and lower oesophagal vessels. It named that the cause of death was ruptured esophageal/gastric varices with profuse internal bleeding into the stomach causing hemorrhagic shock.  

The postmortem report discloses that samples of blood, gastric content, liver, and kidney have been taken for toxicological studies by central government chemists. The family members are now questioning why Lamunu was brought to the hospital late in the evening in her workstation’s staff van, yet they didn’t give her first aid or even make any communications to the family or a report to the police.  

Nancy Lalweny, the sister of the deceased says that they want the cause of the death to be established adding that any ill intention should be addressed in the courts of law.  

 

“The scene of crime was already tampered with. The pastor told us that door was locked ever since, [but] the children told us they access that house every day because they want to go to school. Where is the truth? In that house, our sister keeps her water pot in her room. What does it show? She was threatened within her environment. Why was she denied her leave? I talked to her, she told me I’m coming home on Tuesday if she had come, she wouldn’t have died,” said Lalweny. 

Apiya recalls her last conversation with her mother before her death and claims she sounded healthy and upbeat and that she was shocked to learn about her death later in the evening. 

“That day when I talked to my mother, it was around 1.18 pm, we talked for about 11 minutes, and the last [thing] she told me, ‘it’s already lunchtime, let me go and serve the children food because they were from school’. The conversation I had with my mother, she was healthy. My mother if she’s not feeling well, she always tells me, she always talks and she would have told me that time that maybe she was sick, but she didn’t tell me anything. She was healthy. It was coming to six when I heard that my mother is dead, I went to the hospital, I confirmed that she was already dead,” said Apiya. 

 

“Now as a Christian, I believe in the resurrection, we started praying because I couldn’t believe that a person whom you talked to at 1 pm could die instantly just like that. We started praying for good hours if God could bring her back but nothing happened. The prayers, I thank God because they exposed a lot of things within the 5-6 hours that we were there in the ward with my mother. She started swelling, the stomach started swelling, my mother started oozing liquid from her body and it was smelling. That’s when we knew instantly that she ate something poisonous,” added Apiya. 

Francis Ocan, the deceased’s brother, and Tonny Okot who is a son of the late say that the death should be investigated since there is a lot of contradicting information.

“Immediately we went and opened up a death inquiry with the police and it’s allowed because now there are contradictions. Watoto administration is telling us she died [at] the hospital, Gulu Independent [hospital] is telling us she died hours back. So it’s actually necessary to open up a death inquiry with the help of the police and that is what we’re pursuing,” said Ocan.    
Last week, the management of Watoto Church issued a statement through the communications team leader, Esther Agwang regretting the death. They maintained that she died while being rushed to Gulu hospital by the medical personnel for further medical attention soon after she had started feeling unwell.

“The Watoto Family is deeply saddened by the death of Mother Joyce Lamunu, which occurred on Tuesday, 13th June 2023 as she was being rushed to Gulu Independent Hospital by the personnel for further medical attention soon after she started feeling unwell,” the statement reads in part. 

They added that they have requested the police and the authorities to independently conduct a postmortem to establish the cause of the death and make appropriate recommendations in line with their findings.  

“We have requested police and the authorities to independently conduct a postmortem to establish the cause of death and to make appropriate recommendations in line with their findings,” the statement adds.  

David Ongom Mudong, the Aswa River Region police spokesperson said that a case of sudden death is being investigated by the police in Omoro district vide DIF 02/2023. He added that statements have been recorded, and some samples of food have been taken to the Government Analytical Laboratory for analysis.