Museveni's father dies in Kampala hospital
Mzee Amos Kaguta, the father to Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, is dead.
Mzee Kaguta died on Friday at the International Hospital Kampala, a privately-owned health unit where he was admitted last week.
"Mr Museveni and all Kaguta family wish to announce the death of their father Mzee Amos Kaguta, 96, which occurred today February 22 at 0700 hrs at International Hospital in Kampala. The family thanks all the doctors that cared for Mr Kaguta in his last moments. Burial arrangements will be announced later. May Mzee's soul rest in peace," a short text message from the President's Deputy Press Secretary Lindah Nabusayi Wamboka said.
Last week, family members and hospital staff declined to discuss specifics of Mzee Kaguta's ailment.
Dr Diana Atwine, the family’s physician, said Mzee Kaguta was taken to hospital for “observation” after complaining of “abdominal pains”.
But another source said Mzee Kaguta had an ailment in the head, and gave no details.
State House officials said Mzee Kaguta’s hospitalisation, reportedly on Thursday, was a family matter and they would not comment on it.
In his book, Sowing the Mustard Seed, President Museveni describes his father as an enduring character and disciplinarian.
Mr Museveni recounts the father’s struggles to bring them up in a rural and cattle-herding community with modest resources, embracing Western education and imparting in them traditional values even after converting to Christianity in the 1950s.
Mzee Kaguta, a former traditionalist, converted to Christianity and got baptised as Amos around 1944, the year Mr Museveni suspects he was born, and had the toddler baptised at an Anglican Church on August 3, 1947 – without going through requisite catechism lessons.
