The Minister for Presidency, Babirye Milly Babalanda says President Yoweri Museveni has ordered for an official burial for former Democratic Party (DP) leader Dr. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere.
Ssemogerere died on Friday, November 18, 2022 at the age of 90 at his home in Rubaga Division in Kampala.
“H.E the President has this morning directed that fallen former DP President General, Hon. Dr. Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, is accorded an official funeral. All arrangements are, accordingly, underway,” Babalanda said.
Ssemogerere was a Presidential Candidate in the disputed 1980 General elections which were won by Milton Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress. He then became the leader of the parliamentary opposition from 1981 to 1985. He was appointed Minister of Internal Affairs during the presidency of Tito Okello (1985–86).
After Yoweri Museveni became president in January 1986 following a coup, Ssemogerere was consecutively Minister of Internal Affairs (1986–88).
He served in Foreign Affairs (1988–94) and Public Service (1994–95) and at the same time held the post of deputy prime minister in Museveni’s National Resistance Movement government (from 1986).
He resigned from his government posts in June 1995 because he was the presidential candidate for the mainstream opposition, but he lost the 1996 presidential elections to Museveni.
Ssemogerere has also been a delegate to the Organisation for African Unity (OAU), and was chairman of the OAU Council of Ministers from 1993 to 1994.
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.
