Fighting for his life, police officer seeks help

Two years ago, Rashid Ssemugenyi, then a lovely 27 year old youth, always had a smiling face.

The bachelor of commerce graduate also had grand ambitions key among them being joining the Uganda Police Force to serve his country.

Indeed, he soon realised this dream. he enrolled at the Police training school in Kabalye and after a year, he was passed out as an officer

Two years down the road, Ssemugenyi has been struck by a kidney infection that has left most parts of his body swollen. On Monday when we visited him at his house in Munyonyo, he lay on a bed writhing in pain.

Besides him was his mother who identified herself as Nnalongo.

"Who is this?" he asked the mother, when our reporter paid him a visit.

With introductions out of the way, Ssemugenyi then narrated his journey from a vibrant officer in the field, to one who has since become virtually motionless, confined on his bed for most part of this year.

“It was during the 2016 elections when we were posted to Arua and we were later deployed in Pakwach for there was some election violence,”Ssemugenyi began his story.

A few days later, he said, his hands begun swelling as well as feeling light,a condition he communicated to his instructor.

“He asked me whether I was allergic and I had taken some foods.I responded that I had only eaten the usual beans and posho,” Ssemugenyi said.

According to the now grounded police officer, the illness that had begun at around 10 am had turned worse by afternoon and requested for permission to return to Kampala for medication, a request he was granted.

He says at Mulago hospital, he was given some medication but the illness only got worse as days went by.

“What were swellings in the small joints of the fingers and feet now turned to the neck and elbow," he said.

Meanwhile, the cadet officers were now sent to various stations around the country for probation and as luck would have it, ASP Ssemugenyi was posted to Mitooma as the officer in charge of operations.

He however says that he was always in and out of hospital battling a strange illness that doctors had failed to identify.

Ssemugenyi claims that at one time he was diagnosed and doctors told him he had a condition known as "auto immune".

They prescribed some medication to help cure the strange illness but this didn’t help as his condition continued to deteriorate as time went on.

“I was getting weak day by day yet it was costly  to move to Kampala,” he said, his voice hardly disguising the pain.

According to his young brother,Jamil Kirabira, they decided to rent a house in Munyonyo to be nearer Mulago hospital (Kiruddu) for easy access to medication.

The brother said Ssemugenyi was later diagnosed at Nsambya hospital where it was found out that he was suffering from kidney failure and on referral to Mulago for further tests, it was discovered that both kidneys had defects and needed a transplant.

“He started dialysis where he was put on machine that works as a kidney but this process requires him to go to hospital two times a week,”Kirabira says.

On each visit, he is supposed to pay Shs 400,000, money that is not easy to come by.

Kidney transplant

Ssemugenyi’s brother says two of his relatives were advised to fly him to Nairobi for kidney tests and possible transplant but the costs were prohibitive.

They are hoping they can raise money to possibly fly Ssemugenyi to India.

Asked whether they have tried to engage police for assistance, Kirabira said that they once received one million shillings from the Directorate of Welfare adding that efforts for more assistance from the force have yielded no result.

“He is supposed to raise over 80 million to go to India for a kidney transplant in a month’s time,” Kirabira said.

Police responds

In an interview with this website, police spokesperson AIGP Asan Kasingye confirmed he had heard of  Ssemugenyi’s plight but said the issue would be addressed soon.

“There is a process and it will be followed up with the Ministry of Health, medical board and the Office of the Prime Minister,”Kasingye told the Nile Post.

The police mouthpiece however added,“the police does not neglect its officers  but the family was wrong to say it was because of cadet training without medical evidence.”