How police bureaucracy, neglect cost the life of their own officer

Despite the police director in charge of operation AIGP Asuman Mugyenyi asking for an expeditious process and the Internal Affairs Minister appended signature to all the necessary documents, the bureaucracy and negligence in the force has cost the life of one of their own officer.

Two years ago, Rashid Ssemugenyi, then a lovely 27 year old youth with a smiling face joined the police force as a cadet following completion of his bachelor’s degree in commerce.

He would later be among the group of cadet officers who were now sent to various stations around the country for probation and as luck would have it, Assistant Superintendent of Police Ssemugenyi was posted to Mitooma as the officer in charge of operations.

Earlier, he had during the 2016 general elections been deployed in Arua and during one case of election violence in the area he got an infection that was later diagnosed to be problems with his kidneys.

Police would later promise to come to the help of their own officer who on top of a much needed kidney transplant in India had to undergo dialysis almost every week.

“There is a process and it will be followed up with the Ministry of Health, medical board and the Office of the Prime Minister,” the then police spokesperson AIGP Asan Kasingye told the Nile Post in October last year.

Fast forward, Ssemugenyi was declared dead on Wednesday morning at Kiruddu government hospital where he had been admitted on orders of the police leadership according to his young brother Jamil Kirabira who has been taking care of him.

http://nilepost.co.ug/2017/10/17/police-to-meet-medical-bills-of-neglected-officer/

“He was undergoing dialysis at Case hospital but because of the accumulated bills to a tune of shs34 million, we were ordered to take him to Kiruddu where the services were free according to the police leadership,”Kirabira told this website.

Kidney transplant

This website has also learnt that as promised, efforts were underway to have Ssemugenyi flown to India for the kidney transplant and as part of the process, the Internal Affairs Minister Gen.Jeje Odongo approved the trip .

The acting Director General Health Services Dr.Henry Mwebesa in a letter dated December 4, 2017 wrote to Prof.D.K Agarwal, a senior consultant nephrologist at the Apollo hospital in New Delhi,India informing him that Ssemugenyi would be flown to the hospital for a kidney transplant surgery.

“The chairperson of the medical board has approved his referral as an emergency and Mulago national referral hospital has recommended that he should be reffered to you for this operation,” reads in part the letter.

In a loose minute that this website has a copy of dated January 31,2018, AIGP Mugyenyi warned that having been grounded for two years, Ssemugenyi’s matter ought to be handled with the urgency it required.

“He was supposed to travel to India early December 2017 but his situation continues to deteriorate. I propose that you intervene and this will save the institution the possible embarrassment in case he passes on without supporting him in that direction,” AIGP Mugyenyi said in a loose minute to the Inspector General of Police, Gen.Kale Kayihura.

Unconfirmed reports from the police officers’ relatives claimed that Gen.Kayihura appended signature for approval of the trip to India for the transplant and forwarded the matter to the Undersecretary in-charge of police , Rogers Muhirwa.

“At first he told us the file had got lost but later he said the money would be released in the the quarter that started in January,”Kirabira told the Nile Post.

He said that when his brother was admitted at Kiruddu as ordered by police authorities , he was supposed to undergo dialysis but when he approached the same people for money to carry out the process, he was told the service was free of charge.

“He was supposed to have gone for dialysis on Friday(February 16,2018) but we were told this could only be possible on Monday .By the time the process was done, he was too weak and today(Wednesday) he passed on,”Kirabira said with tears rolling down his cheeks.

The family members blamed the police Undersecretary, Muhirwa who is in charge of finance for the police force for failure to act when all the necessary steps had been finalised to have him flown to India for a kidney transplant leading to the death of ASP Rashid Ssemugenyi.

However, when contacted, the police spokesperson Emilian Kayima said they would come up with a statement on the matter later.

“It is important for u to first let the family grieve the loss of their dear son and our comrade in service. We shall issue a formal statement soon,”Kayima told the Nile Post.