Grief as Gen Muntu’s diaspora coordinator Barbara Allimadi is found dead in her house

Gen Mugisha Muntu headed Alliance for National Transformation (ANT) political party has confirmed the demise of its coordinator for international affairs and daughter to former Prime Minister Eriphas Otema Allimadi who served under President Milton Obote.

Allimadi was found dead in her house in the Kampala suburb of Kiwatule on Monday. Both her relative Milton Allimadi and ANT leader Alice Alaso confirmed Allimadi’s death.

Alaso, also former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) secretary general, broke the sad news of Allimadi’s passing in the official ANT Whatsapp group. “Our sister Barbara Allimadi has been reported dead,” wrote Alaso.

“Family and friends, it is with a very heavy heart that we announce the sudden passing of our sister Barbara Allimadi. Barbara was a much loved sister, aunty and cousin. She was also an activist, a champion of justice and democracy in Uganda. She will be greatly missed,” wrote Milton Allimadi.

It has also emerged that Barbara’s cousin had reported her dead after opening the door of the main house “only to find Barbara dead in the sitting room.”

The cause of her death remains a mystery. Police took Barbara’s body to Mulago Hospital for a postportem on Monday. Milton said the family has asked “that the public respect our privacy as we mourn our beloved sister” and “will provide more information in the near future.”

Allimadi will be remembered for her role in the 2012 bra march in which activists protested the manhandling of FDC’s Ingrid Turinawe after a male police officer was captured squeezing her breasts during an arrest.

She went to Nakasero primary school, and briefly went to Gayaza High School in 1985 before going abroad after the overthrow of the Obote II government under which her father served.

She later graduated with a degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from London Metropolitan University, and later got a Master’s in Human Rights from Makerere University.