Dr Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere dies at 90

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Dr. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, Democratic Party’s former president has died today, aged 90.

A close family member has confirmed to URN that Dr. Ssemogerere who twice contested for presidency and led DP for over 25 years died early Friday morning, at his home in Rubaga.

He contested for the Presidency for DP against UPC’s Dr Apollo Milton Obote in the controverial 1980 election.

He later became Minister in President Yoweri Museveni’s NRM government, resigned and contested against President Yoweri Museveni in 1996.

PROFILE

Dr. Ssemogerere was born on 11th February 1932, at Bumangi, Buggala Island, in the Ssese and he was baptized on 18th February of the same year.

In 1940, he started formal education at St. John’s Boys Boarding Primary School. He later joined St. Henry’s College Kitovu’s  Primary Section before it was abolished. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere then went to  Kisubi Boys where he completed his Primary Leaving Certificate in1946. 

In 1947 Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere joined St.Mary’s College KisubiJunior Secondary One. He obtained the SecondaryLeaving Certificate in 1949 and was admitted to Senior Secondary One in 1950. He obtained the Cambridge OverseasSchool Certificate in 1952.

After St. Mary’s College Kisubi, Paul Kawanga Ssemogerereenrolled at Makerere College, then the University College of East Africa, when it was still an affiliate of the University of London. He  underwent an Intermediate Course (the equivalent of  Higher School Certificate) and, thereafter joined the Faculty of Education for a Diploma in Education (Dip. Ed. EA; 1959) Ssemogerere continued to pursue academics even as he practiced politics and by 1979, he had obtained a PhD in Public Administration for a New York University.

He took over leadership of the DP in 1972 while parties were under proscription by the military government, and officially became its president general after the fall of Idi Amin in 1979. Ssemogerere contested for president in December 1980, in the disputed election that led to the Luwero bush war as many believed he had been robbed of his victory. But he did not join the armed rebellion and instead went into Parliament to lead the opposition.

After the fall of the Obote 2 government, Ssemogerere served as minister in the subsequent governments, until 1995 when he resigned in readiness to contest for presidency in the 1996 polls that were won by Yoweri Museveni.

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URN