Former IGP Kisembo dead

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The former Inspector General of Police-IGP, John Kisembo is dead. He breathed his last at Platinum hospital Kampala along Buganda road on Thursday evening. Kisembo served as IGP from 1998 to 2001 and was replaced by Gen Katumba Wamala, the current Works State Minister. Police Chief Political Commissar, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIGP), Asan Kasingye confirmed news of Kisembo’s passing on his twitter handle at 6pm.

“I am sad and blue about my former boss and friend. Rest thee well IGP (Emeritus), John Kisembo,” AIGP Kasingye said in his tweet. A close family member, who preferred anonymity, since he hasn’t been authorized to speak for the family, said Kisembo was diagnosed with Lung Cancer at Nairobi hospital in January this year.

He spent over a month in Nairobi hospital before he was flown back in February. According to the family source, Kisembo’s cancer stretches back to 2017 when he started developing lung related illnesses. However, the hospitals in Kampala hospital couldn’t confirm the cancer until he was flown to Kenya’s capital, Nairobi. Upon his return from Nairobi, Kisembo was admitted at Platinum hospital where he has been in and out on various. “He could spend three to five days at Platinum hospital but he could be discharged upon regain health,” said the source.

Kisembo was admitted at the same facility last Sunday from where he breathed his last around 4:45 pm on Thursday. A family member said the cancer had reached stage three by the time it was diagnosed in Kenya.

Kisembo will be laid to rest at his ancestral home in Kagadi district. He was born on October 1st 1955. He was the police chief during the Justice Julia Sebutinde Commission that made several recommendations aimed at the revamping Uganda Police Force. It was during his tenure, that UPF stopped recruiting Senior Four graduates as Police Constables. This was after Sebutinde recommended that S4 leavers were unable to read and interpret the law.

This is compelled police to raise the entry requirement of police constables to senior six, a trend that has remained to date. Before his appointment as IGP, Kisembo was deputy to John Cossy Odomel who was IGP from 1992 to 1998. Odomel replaced Apollo Byekwaso who was police chief from 1990 to 1992.

Byekwaso replaced David Posomgen who was IGP from 1988 to 1990 while Luke Ofungi was police chief from 1985 to 1987.