MP Ssegirinya dies at 37

Kawempe North MP, Muhammad Ssegirinya
What you need to know:
- Muhammad Ssegirinya was elected to Parliament in the 2021 general election.
- Despite being pinned to different hospital beds in Uganda, the Netherlands and Kenya, he recently indicated that he would contest for another term in Parliament in the 2026 general election.
Kawempe North MP, Muhammad Ssegirinya is dead, Lubaga Hospital in Kampala has announced.
“Ssegirinya has been under the dedicated care of our medical team at Lubaga Hospital. Despite all efforts to ensure his recovery, he passed away today, Thursday, 9th January 2025, at 12:10 pm. On behalf of the hospital, we extend our heartfelt condolences to the Parliament of Uganda, the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Members of Parliament, his family, and the people of Kawempe North, whom he represented with passion and commitment,” reads a Thursday afternoon statement from the health facility.
He was aged 37.
He was elected to Parliament in 2021 general election before he was arrested a year later.
Ssegirinya has been pinned to hospital beds in Uganda, Kenya and the Netherlands following his release from prison where he and his Makindye West counterpart, Allan Ssewanyana spent over 500 days on remand after they were arrested over machete attacks in Greater Masaka subregion which left 20 people dead.
Parliament will hold a special sitting tomorrow, 10am, to pay tribute to Ssegirinya.
Political journey
In 2006, Mr Ssegirinya started calling into live radio political talk shows. Then a Senior Three student at Pimba Secondary in Kyebando, Kawempe North constituency, Ssegirinya would refer to himself as “eddoboozi lye Kyebando” or the voice of Kyebando. Later, when his ambitions grew, he would sign in and sign off as “MP to be, Kawempe North.”
In truth, few people took Ssegirinya seriously for the most part because he struggled to articulate himself in English. Yet after beating Suleiman Kidandala to the NUP flag in the primary for Kawempe North race, during the 2021 General Election, he would go on to poll 41,197 votes against the latter’s 7,512 votes. Kidandala had, contrary to NUP’s counsel, chosen to stand as an independent.
Yet barely months after his dominant win at the ballot, Ssegirinya and Allan Ssewanyana, a fellow NUP member and lawmaker for Makindye West, were arrested after being connected to the machete killings in greater Masaka districts. The two were granted bail on September 21, 2021 only to be rearrested shortly after at the outskirts of Kigo prison. Fresh murder charges were preferred against them, stemming from the Lwengo District machete killings where more than 20 people were killed.
For the one-and-half years, Ssegirinya and Ssewanyana spent on remand, rumours circulated that their imprisonment had nothing to do with the crimes they had allegedly committed. Conspiracy theories instead offered—without giving evidence—that the arrests were triggered by the lawmakers’ dealings with the powerful people within the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.
Despite being pinned to different hospital beds in Uganda, the Netherlands and Kenya, Ssegirinya recently indicated that he would contest for another term in Parliament in the 2026 general election.