Dr James Makumbi, former minister of Health, is dead

Dr James Makumbi, the former minister of Health is dead.

According to a relative, Dr Makumbi was found dead at his country home in Bbaale county, Kayunga district. At the time of writing this, the cause of his death is still unknown.

Makumbi came to the limelight as minister of Health in the 1990s.

In February 1995, he was kidnapped by a rebel outfit headed by renegade UPDF soldier, Herbert Itongwa, an event that made headlines for more than a week.

Reliving this ordeal to The Daily Monitor in April 2015, Makumbi said: "At around mid-day on the first day in captivity, Itongwa interrogated us one by one. He started with me. I had known Itongwa way back during the National Resistance Army (NRA) struggle. He told me as far as he was concerned, he had started the struggle to overthrow the government I was working for and that made me an enemy. He gave me two options, either to join him or be executed since they did not have a prison where they could keep me.I narrated to Dr Kiyonga the whole experience.

He added: Those three days were the worst in my life. What I hated most was the way some journalists reported the story, portraying it as a joy ride. I found it very upsetting."

 

 

More details to follow later...