Former Presidential candidate and Democratic Party leader Dr. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, has died aged 90 at his home in Rubaga.
Dr. Ssemogerere is reported to have died in the wee hours of Friday morning, according to family members.
Besides being a solid DP member, who led the country’s oldest political party for over 25 years, Ssemogerere was prominent for trying capture power. However, the attempts succumbed to the ruling National Resistance Movement Party’s Yoweri Museveni (in the 1996 presidential polls).
He first aspired for the top seat in December 1980, shortly after assuming leadership as the Democratic Party President. Ssemogerere challenged Milton Obote of the Uganda People’s Congress in the highly disputed 1980 General elections in which he emerged looser.
Consequently, this led to the Luwero bush war as many believed he had been robbed of his victory. However, Ssemogerere would later join Parliament as Leader of Opposition from 1981 to 1985.
After the overthrow of Milton Obote, he served as Minister of Internal Affairs under President Tito Okello, whose term was short-lived from (1985–86).
After the fall of the Obote 2 government, Ssemogerere served as minister in the subsequent governments, until 1995. Ssemogerere served as Minister of Internal Affairs (1986–88), Foreign Affairs (1988–94) and Public Service (1994–95).
After his retirement from politics in November 2005, he was succeeded as Party President by John Ssebaana Kizito, the mayor of Kampala at that time.
Back ground
Dr. Ssemogerere was born on 11th February 1932, at Bumangi, Buggala Island, in the Ssese and 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. Ssemogerere then went to Kisubi Boys where he completed his Primary education in 1946.
In 1947, Ssemogerere joined St. Mary’s College Kisubi Junior for Senior One. He obtained the Secondary Leaving Certificate in 1949 and was admitted to Senior Secondary One in 1950. He obtained the Cambridge Overseas School Certificate in 1952.
After St. Mary’s College Kisubi, Ssemogerere enrolled 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.
