Ugandan government minister denies running over woman “who was just lying there”

This story from the Ugandan Monitor is amazing, not just for the way it reports the death of a woman but also the cavalier attitude of the government minister, Simon Lokodo (pictured left),  involved.

There are two conflicting stories, depending on who you believe. One is that a woman was knocked over by the minister’s car while he was on the campaign trail in the Kaabong district of the country; the other is that she was already dead by the time his car passed her.

But read what he (and others in authority) said:

The minister said the woman died of old age and that his opponents are trying to make political capital out of the incident. “Those are just malicious people. How do you knock someone who was just lying there?” he asked.

“My vehicle was crossing this area where this lady was lying. My driver just passed there. I am driving a big car. If the car had knocked her, she would have been flattened,” added Mr Lokodo.

The district police commander, Mr Dick Ayesigoma, said no complaints had been made to the police about the incident, which he said could have been blown out of proportion.

“There are a lot of defamatory stories because people like to make storms out of tea cups,” he said. But Noah Epapar Loiki, a resident of Kaabong who claimed to have been at the scene of the incident, said he saw the minister’s vehicle being driven away at high speed after the deceased was knocked.

A storm in a teacup? If his car did not hit her (and I obviously have no idea whether it did or not), why was no one concerned that a woman was lying dead in the road in the first place? Was her life so unimportant to them all? Amazing.

Read the full story on AllAfrica.com.