Kampala: The family of Elisha Nabugyere, the three year kid who was eaten by a leopard, will not be compensated for their loss.
Uganda Wildlife Authority compensation policy only caters for staff but not their family members.
The wildlife authority management will only look deep in their hearts to feel sorry for the little lad and pass on a package of their choice strictly out of compassion.
‘’With such accidents involving relatives of our staff members, the matter can be considered on compassionate and humanitarian grounds,” Mr Bashir Hangi, the UWA Communications Manager adding that management is still reading the tea leaves to see what it can do for the family though, he insisted, it is not mandatory.
He however said that workers are allowed to stay in the game parks with their families albeit insurance covering only workers.
He was echoing his boss’ last week’s sentiments when we asked him about compensation arrangements.
“You can not compensate for death of a human being,” the UWA Executive Director Sam Mwanda. “We shall do something but certainly not compensating for life.”
The late lad’s father police superintendent Francis Manana says he has never received a formal communication from the Uganda Wildlife Authority about the death of his son.
Meanwhile there were reports indicating that when killer leopard was hunted down and killed, the eyes of the deceased boy were retrieved from its intestines before it was buried.
However, the UWA refuted the claim.
“We only removed the skin for souvenir purposes and later buried the animal on police orders,’’ Mr Hangi said.
The father of the killed boy had earlier petitioned UWA to provide him with the boy’s retrieved eyes for a special burial arrangement following the purported rumor.
Nabugyere was last week killed by the leopard after him wandering from his nanny. His bones and skull were buried last week at his father’s ancestral home in Sironko.
