Missing prosecutor’s husband speaks out on last moments

Kampala. The husband of the missing Principal State Attorney has attributed the disappearance of his wife Fatuma Nabiwemba Sendagire from their marital home to post-delivery trauma after she failed to cope with the death of their two-and-a half months old baby.
Ms Nabiwemba left their home in Wampewo, Kasangati, an outskirt of Kampala, on December 12, 2017.

The husband, Dr Ibrahim Sendagire, believes his wife, who worked with the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP), suffered post-natal depression and disappeared because she wanted to be alone and grieve.
“My wife was not able to come to terms with the death of our baby,” a seemingly distressed Dr Sendagire told Daily Monitor at his residence on Sunday evening.
“The post-natal depression could have been escalated when I did not ask my wife what caused the death of my child since it died when I was out of the country. I even didn’t see the baby itself,” he added.

Origin of events
Narrating the events leading to the disappearance, Dr Sendagire said after the baby’s death, his wife started acting abnormally because of depression. She was taken to hospital for treatment.
However, while in hospital, she continued acting weird and refused to take medicine, demanding that she is taken back home because she was not sick. She charged that she was being held there against her will.
“She told me she had no business in the hospital. That’s when I knew she was out of her mind. She even shouted that she was being held against her will. She also said her child was just sleeping but not dead,” he recounts.

Dr Sendagire revealed that upon her persistence, the hospital discharged her the following day but she was given medicine for her post-natal depression to take while at home.
However, on the third day, she refused to take the medicine.
The husband says treatment for post-natal depression takes six months.

Leaving home
Dr Sendagire said the following day his wife showed signs of recovery and drove out of their home as though going to town.
“At the time of driving out, I was in town looking for another professional counsellor. I became uneasy when she didn’t return that night. The following day, I reported the case of a missing person at Kasangati Police Station,” the distraught Dr Sendagire recounted.
He said he also informed his brother-in-law about the incident and tried calling her on three lines, but two were switched off. Only one was active. His wife did not pick his repeated calls and he decided to send her text messages.
“Finally, we got a sigh of relief when she replied and said I should tell her people that she was fine but needed to be alone,” he adds.

Now single father
Dr Sendagire has since resigned his medical job at Agha Khan Hospital in Tanzania and a teaching job at Agha Khan School to return to Uganda to look after his three children now without their mother.
More distress has now piled up on the husband. He says two weeks have elapsed without his wife communicating and when the family tried calling her telephone lines, they were all switched off. He says this has inflicted a tall order on him.
During the two-hour interview with Daily Monitor, one of the younger children aged about five, gave a letter to the dad saying: “if you see mom, give it to her.”

Upon handing him the letter, Dr Sendagire broke down.
He explained that he had kept the mother’s disappearance a secret from his two younger children. He had told them the mum was still in hospital attending to their little sister (who died) since they had seen her taken in an ambulance when the depression dawned.
He said the elder child knows about the disappearance of their mother but he warned her not to disclose the sad news to her little siblings because they might not cope up.
The car his wife used to drive out of their home in December was returned the following day by her driver who explained that someone at a washing bay in Makerere had called him to pick it.
Dr Sendagire further narrates that eyewitnesses told him they last saw her at that same washing bay but in a bad condition being ridden away by a boda boda.

Experts speak out

Effects. Dr David Basangwa, the director of Butabika Mental Rehabilitation Hospital, said sometimes mothers get challenges that develop into stress before and after delivery. “The stress can progress into depression but this can be detected, treated and reversed,” Dr Basangwa said.
Dr Basangwa advises expectant mothers whose family members have ever had depression, to check for depression during antenatal care.

According to the World Health Organisation, “depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activities that you normally enjoy, accompanied by an inability to carry out daily activities, for at least two weeks”.
Information on the WHO website also indicates that a person with depression suffers from energy loss, a change in appetite, sleeping more or less, anxiety, reduced concentration, indecisiveness, restlessness, feelings of worthlessness, guilt, or hopelessness and thoughts of self-harm or suicide.

Depression is treatable, with talking therapies or antidepressant medication or a combination of these, the world body says.
Dr Sheila Ndyanabangi, the Principal Medical Officer in Charge of Mental Health and Control of Substance abuse in the Ministry of Health, says all regional hospitals in the country have been equipped to handle depression and mental illness on top of private ones.
She says depression is becoming a big issue in the country and expectant mothers are more vulnerable, especially when they are not being supported by their spouses or family members.

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