The eviction, on the orders of Internal Affairs Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, follows the insistence by Obote's family that whether the house was repaired or not and whether it was occupied or not, his body would have to rest in it before burial in his Akokoro Village in Apac District on Sunday, October 23.

IN MOURNING: Ms Miria Obote grieves by her husband’s coffin in Johannesburg on Friday. Photo by Andrew Mwenda

"Whether the house is repaired or not, I will take the body to Kololo," said Obote's cousin Adoko Nekyon, who is representing the family in talks with the government on matters related to the former President.

The house is located at Plot 20, Impala Avenue, in the upscale Kololo neighbourhood of Kampala.
Obote's body will arrive in the country on Wednesday, October 19, from Lusaka Zambia, where he had been exiled for 20 years.

Obote died of kidney failure in a Johannesburg clinic on Monday, October 10. He was 80. Before news of the eviction broke, the government had said earlier on Saturday that Obote's house would be available for the ex-President's funeral vigil.

"The house is today available for the family to use and between today, and the day they will take there the body we will try to give it a facelift but time is not enough to rehabilitate it," Dr Rugunda said.
Nekyon said that Rugunda visited the house in the past days to assess the state of disrepair and the possibility of sprucing it up before the arrival of the body on Wednesday.

The huge two-storey house sports broken glass windows in several rooms. The decent parts were the living quarters of Obwoya's family and his escorts.

When Sunday Monitor visited the house on Saturday mid-morning, UPC activists had swarmed it as some five soldiers and family members packed the household property such as furniture on a huge military truck. It is unclear to where the Isuzu truck drove because neither the family nor the soldiers accepted to talk to us.

As the truck drove off, the UPC activists hurled abuses saying the soldiers had thought they would live in the house forever but were mistaken.
The military publicist, Lt. Col. Shaban Bantariza, said that the house was "occupied [under a Defence arrangement] after nobody seriously claimed it but once someone comes up and he is the rightful owner, we give it back."

During his reign, Obote did not live in State House but at his Kololo private house.
From Entebbe, Nekyon said, the body will be taken to Mulago Medical School for treatment and later to the Kololo house.

‘We are happy’
Nekyon described the vacation of the house as a "great success for the family". He said that in the Oyima clan of Obote, before a person is buried he must spend a night in his house. That is partly why the re-acquisition of the Kololo house is important to the family.

In a related development, Nekyon said the family wants to take back another house behind the one on Plot 20 because it belongs to the dead former head of state. The house is used by Microcare, a health insurance firm for low-income earners.

Meanwhile, the government has set up a seven-member committee to assess and advise it on how to compensate the fallen President.

Public Service Minister Henry Kajura chairs the committee. The members are Finance Minister Ezra Suruma, Attorney General Khiddu Makubuya, Nekyon, two lawyers and an accountant from the family.

Nekyon told Sunday Monitor that the committee starts its work this weekend and should be able to reach a consensus in a few days' time.

This followed a Friday meeting between the government side led by Rugunda and the Obote family side led by Nekyon.

The family wants the government to pay Obote his salary for 20 years and return all his properties since he was deposed in 1985.

"We demand that government pays all the entitlements Dr Obote would have received as a former head of state right from the time he was deposed and forced into exile in 1985," Nekyon said." He has never received his emoluments as a former President of Uganda, while his houses are occupied by government," Nekyon said.

Sunday Monitor has learnt that one of the key issues the committee would have to resolve is whether the compensation and other benefits would be calculated from the time Obote was deposed in July 1985 or from the time the Presidential Emoluments and Benefits Act came into force on July 1, 1996.

Entitlements
Under the same Act, a President who ceases to hold office receives several benefits. "A President receives an allowance of Shs2 million monthly, a fully furnished house, government chauffer paid car, free medical treatment for self and immediate family, four government paid security guards, transport for security guards, a secretary, utilities and two domestic staff," amongst other benefits.

Obote owned, among other properties, residential houses in Kololo and Lira and several other properties under the Milton Obote Foundation.
Some of the properties have been used by the government.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY HUSSEIN BOGERE