Panic ensued at Kasensero landing site in Rakai district as a 38-year-old man, who had been declared dead, coughed ‘back to life’ two hours to his burial.
Zachariah Kasagga, a fisherman at the landing site, was reported dead at around 10:00am on Friday after a long illness.
The “body” was wrapped in barkcloth and bedsheets. Friends set out to look for his relatives in Kabinda village, Kabira sub-county in Rakai district.
The wrapped “body” remained in the house with a few mourners. After two days, Kasagga’s relatives came. Due to financial limitations, they decided to transport the “body” on a motorcycle to Kabira.
According to a bodaboda cyclist who was transporting the body ahead of the other mourners, he felt “body” moving and heard it coughing as he approached the burial ground.
“I stopped and took off without looking behind,” Ntumwa said.
The mourners who were following the bodaboda arrived and found the “body” and the motorcycle abandoned on the roadside.
They also fled in fear.
However, 20 minutes later, a few brave mourners went back to investigate. They discovered that Kasagga was alive. They took him to Kalisizo Hospital after alerting the Police.
Isaac Mugera, the officer in charge of Kasensero Police post, said he offered his patrol car to rush Kasagga to hospital in order to save his life.
Kasagga’s mother Elivania Tebasulwa said her son was frail and could hardly breath.
She said he is now in intensive care at the hospital and she is at his bedside taking care of him.
Tebasulwa explained that they had already dug a grave and cooked food for the mourners when they received information that Kasagga had miraculously resurrected.
“We have been weeping for days now but when we received the good news, we ate the food in jubilation,” she said.
Gershom Kalemeera, one of the elders of Kabinda village, said it was a miracle from God.
He said the family had been praying as soon as they received the news of Kasagga’s “death”.
Evalisto Kalyango, another elder, told the New Vision that mourners planted banana plantations in the grave as is the tradition in Buganda for those whose graves have been dug and later found alive.
Steven Kabuye, also a close friend to Kasagga, said it was a miracle because rarely do people who spend three days wrapped in barkcloth and blankets live again.
While the mourners and some Christians called it a miracle from God, medics at Kalisizo Hospital who preferred anonymity said Kasagga had slipped into a coma due to the long illness.
They said his health was improving but declined to reveal what had caused the coma.
The New Vision
UM– USEKE.RW
