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Police officer who dressed, lived like Queen Elizabeth

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The late Pauline Maniraguha Bangirana. Photo/Courtesy

Retired Superintendent of Police (SP) Pauline Maniraguha Bangirana from the first cohort of the 10 female police pioneers, has died aged 83, a family member has confirmed.

Ms Lelia Bangirana, her daughter-in-law, said Bangirana succumbed to septic shock at Nsambya Hospital at around 11pm on Monday, a day after celebrating her birthday.

 Septic shock is a serious medical condition that can occur when an infection in the body causes extremely low blood pressure and organ failure due to sepsis. It is the most severe stage of sepsis, is life-threatening and requires immediate medical treatment. 

Ms Bangirana said before her death, the deceased was “very ill” and one could hardly hear what she said.

“She was hospitalised at Nsambya Hospital on January 27; she was anaemic with severe anaemia, so, we were trying to treat anaemia and pneumonia,” she said on Tuesday.

 Immediately after the news of Bangirana’s death reverberated across the country, tributes started filtering through thick and fast, with a section of Ugandans describing her as “a friendly and motherly figure” who welcomed people to her home at the Law Development Centre (LDC), where her husband, Mr Bangirana, worked as secretary.

Retired Superintendent of Police (SP) Pauline Maniraguha Bangirana delivers a speech during the celebration of her 80th birthday in Ibanda District in 2022. PHOTOS/COURTESY

Ms Bangirana described her mother in-law as a “disciplinarian” and “smart lady” who admired Queen Elizabeth II, the monarch of the United Kingdom who passed away on September 9, 2022 aged 96.

 “She was smart, admired the late Queen of England, and loved dressing like her in hats, gloves and holding nice handbags,” she said.

 She added that the deceased was a philanthropist who loved giving back to the Bulamu Village community in Gayaza, Wakiso District, where she was staying.

 “I personally recall a neighbour’s child who would cry at a particular time, until the deceased sought to find out why. It later emerged that the child was staying with his grandmother and apparently, when the mother went to work in the morning, she left little money and the son always cried because of hunger.

“The deceased paid the area shopkeeper called Henry money to supply the boy with milk, bread and sugar until the habitual cries stopped; she really cared,” Ms Bangirana added.

Pauline Maniraguha Bangirana’s dress code was always inspired by Queen Elizabeth.  In this photo, she was with Hannah, her great granddaughter on her christening at St CharlesLwanga Church, Ntinda. Photo/Courtesy

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Bangirana was born on February 2, 1942, in Kagera, Mutolere Parish, Kisoro District. She was the fourth child of Atanasi Ngayabatema and Marisiyana Nyiranti- banyendera, both deceased.

She began her education at Mutolere Primary School in Kisoro District before joining Mushanga Sacred Heart, where she excelled with a First Grade. 

This achievement earned her admission opportunities at Mt St Mary’s Namagunga and Trinity College Nabbingo. 

However, driven by her passion for teaching, she chose to pursue her studies at Stella Maris Nsube.

However, while in Nsube, her late brother-in-law Protasio Ayigihugu, encouraged her to join the police, which she did on April 10, 1961.

 In September 1960, she responded to an advert in the Uganda Argus, calling for applications from young Ugandan women seeking to join the Uganda Protectorate Police Force, and was passed out on December 12, 1961.

On December 12, 1964, she met Polycarp Bangirana, whom she wedded at Christ the King Church in Kampala on September 15, 1966. He passed away in 2017.

She was also one of the first 10 women enlisted in the then Uganda Protectorate Police Force, and the first female juvenile court prosecutor, and would later rise through the ranks to become detective in 1968.

She would later continue serving in the Protectorate Police Force until 1966, and subsequent post-independence governments, including the current National Resistance Movement (NRM) government.

 In March 2021, she published her memoir titled To Be Shrewd without Appearing a Shrew: The Life and Times of Uganda’s Pioneer Woman Police Officer.

In the book, Bangirana recounts how she saved the life of President Museveni’s mother, the late Esteri Kokundeka, which has since had a bearing on her nephew and businessman, Mr Paul Sine.

 “On pages 102-103, the deceased recalls while at her office in Room Nine at Central Police Station in Kampala, when she was reportedly asked to escort Mama Esteri from the hospital to her home, but suspected a plot at harming her and arresting her son, Museveni, who was then a guerrilla rebel leader. 

“She says she then took a delicate decision to have Mama Esteri put in charge of the very office she suspected wanted to kill her to ensure her safety,” Mr Sine says.

 He adds: “Such a deed exemplifies why in life we should not only love and trust in God, but also always do the right thing and put humanitarian work above politics whilst taking calculated risks. That was the hallmark of her life and career.” 

At the time of her death, Pauline Maniraguha Bangirana was the Senior Presidential Advisor for Human Rights Violations under the President’s Office