Africa-Press – Uganda. By its nature, death leaves pain and it is hard to cope with. It is an overwhelming experience. So spare a thought for Karoli Ssemogerere, who in a space of a month, lost his father—Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere—and his only brother—Paul Ssemakula.
Kawanga Ssemogerere, whose lifetime of service in Uganda’s political space established him as one of few actors still able to command mass appeal, died on November 18, 2022. Before his passing, the former Democratic Party (DP) leader wrote his son—Karoli—a lengthy letter that with hindsight was his way of saying goodbye.
“I was in America, and he sent me a very long email and gave me his own reflection of my life. When I look back, I think he was saying goodbye. He was asking me when I was coming back,” Karoli recollects.
When Karoli returned, he got involved in many things. One of those things included helping his brother get medication. Today, he stares at a cemetery with graves carrying fresh flowers of his young brother and father.
Sorely missed
If he had an opportunity to have one last conversation with his father, Karoli says he would assure him about continuing his legacy.
Much as the father and son spoke, the former was a man who put his ideas to others in writing. In the midst of all the trauma that wears him down and visibly tortures him, Karoli is still taking in the shock of the death of his brother, who complained of a cough and back pain. Ssemakula died three weeks after his father was interred.
“I didn’t see it coming. When he complained of cough, I thought it was the dust,” Karoli says,
He adds:“The first reading I got from an oncologist from the US was very bad and then with a team here, there was a plan to have him go for his diagnosis. He died before all that, but the doctors did whatever they could.”
Karoli further proceeds to note that when the doctors underlined the gravity of the ailment, “I kept on asking them: ‘how much time do we have?’”
A lawyer by profession, Karoli has lived in both Uganda and America. It is normal in the US to ask how long a patient has left. When the medics revealed that Ssemakula had a short time left to live, Karoli moved to make his young brother’s remaining time on earth comfortable.
Karoli had planned to have his family take the first week of December off recharging batteries at Kawanga Forest Lodge on the island of Kalangala. Fate had other plans, though.
“At a personal level, I have lost my only brother. He coordinated many things. Wherever I relaxed, he could pick up from there,” Karoli told Monitor.
Tending to his brother opened his eyes to the situation at the Uganda Cancer Institute (UCU).
“For the first few days I went to Mulago, I kept on calling the oncologist and he was not coming. He always told me he was on his way, so I went to the outpatients and from then on, I never asked him why he delayed,” he recalls, adding, “The doctors there are overwhelmed. Our cancer centre sees people from Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Rwanda and Congo. The way I got to know it was by seeing a tariff for Ugandans and non-Ugandans.”
He further says: “There are young children in schools developing cancer. The resources are stretched. Imagine in December, you couldn’t make an appointment for chemotherapy and get it until November next year. The situation is alarming. The cancer institute is an independent hospital within a hospital and looks detached from the main complex.”
Cancer awareness
And whereas the death of his brother knocked him sideways, Karoli has chosen to honour his memory by creating awareness about not just cancers but the need to improve the institute where treatment is extended.
“For my father, all memories are positive. I have a lot of respect for what he (my father) did, his time, his vision, and the way he lived it,” Karoli reveals, drawing parallels between Kawanga Ssemogerere’s long, storied life and the brevity of Ssemakula’s life.
Karoli adds of his father: “He filed constitutional petitions, and some reached the Court of Appeal, he challenged the removal of President Yusuf Lule and as a result, the Chief Justice at the time lost his job. He was very keen about the creation of the International Criminal Court.”
Karoli celebrates his father for his passion as evidenced by his investment in Kawanga Forest Lodge that spans about a square mile in Kalangala District.
“This family has been very close to my family because of the friendship our departed fathers had. I fully know what it means to lose a parent and sibling in one month,” Kennedy Mutenyo, a family friend, says, adding, “This happened to me last year when I lost my sister and mother in a space of 53 days. Paul was a very welcoming person and a perfect example of what a child should be to his parents.”
Joseph Lukyamuzi remembers Ssemakula as a small lad back at Mugwanya Preparatory School Kabojja, who was very quiet and “would qualify for a disciplined pupil award.”
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