Ssemogerere collapse linked to low blood pressure

KAMPALA. Veteran politician and long-serving president general of the Democratic Party (DP) Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere collapsed in church yesterday due to low blood pressure, according to his family.
His son Karoli Ssemogerere told this newspaper last night that “Dad is at home resting. He suffered [from] low blood pressure. I think he will stabilise.”
Ssemogerere, 86, collapsed during mass at Rubaga Cathedral in Kampala, sparking a stampede in church and anxiety among relatives, friends and political compatriots.
Well-wishers took him out for first aid before his transfer to nearby Rubaga Hospital from where he was discharged after regaining consciousness.
Messages wishing him a quick recovery flooded social media yesterday as news of his ill-health spread.
Mr Jude Mbabaali, the Masaka District chairperson, and Mr Simon Kaggwa Njala, a journalist at NBS Television, were seated behind Dr Ssemogerere and rushed to carry him outside the church.
Mr Mbabaali said they lifted him from the chair and carried him to an emergency centre managed by Kisubi hospital just outside the church where he received first aid and was referred to Rubaga Hospital.
“In the morning, he looked very healthy and shortly before mass, he was able to peruse through the order of mass with ease,” Mr Mbabaali said in a WhatsApp message.
DP spokesperson Kenneth Paul Kakande said the veteran politician and his wife are in a stable condition.

During yesterday’s Kampala Archdiocese Day celebrations, Archbishop Cyprian Kizito Lwanga warned security agencies and corrupt government officials about the injustices they are inflicting on Ugandans, saying the day they die, they will not be buried with the power they think they are wielding today and the wealth they are accumulating.
“Remember that on judgment day, you will be asked to account for all the atrocities you committed, which were not in accordance to the Bible teachings,” he warned.
Mr Aloysius Ivan Kalanzi Ssewanyana, the head of laity at the Kampala Archdiocese, in a message to security agencies, said the current kidnaps, rape and killing of women and brutal arrests are not different from what happened during the days of Idi Amin and Oyite Ojok.
“Oyite Ojok used to be a very powerful soldier in Milton Obote’s government but as he was being buried, mourners wondered how he could die despite all the power he wielded,” he said.