R.I.P: John Nagenda Dead

President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s senior advisor on media matters, John Nagenda, has died, the Ugandan presidency has announced.

Born on April 25, 1938, senior presidential advisor Nagenda was a few months away from his 85th birthday.

Also a long-time columnist with the government-owned New Vision newspaper, Nagenda was born in Rwanda, Uganda’s south western neighbor. His parents were evangelists in Rwanda at the time of his birth.

According to Presidency Minister Milly Babirye Babalanda, Nagenda was pronounced dead at the Medipal Hospital in the capital Kampala.

“I regret to announce the passing on of Senior Presidential Advisor on Media Matters, Mzee John Nagenda, who has passed on at Medipal in Kampala,” wrote Minister Babalanda.

“He was unique, principled and knowledgeable. His services will be dearly missed.”

Museveni’s ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) will remember Nagenda for his role in the National Resistance Army (NRA) war that brought Museveni and his fellow fighters to power in 1986.

During the Museveni bush war, which claimed lives of hundreds of thousands of Ugandans (mostly in the Luweero Triangle), Nagenda lived in exile in the United Kingdom but worked closely with the NRA.

He will be remembered for helping the NRA win the support of Buganda by suggesting and ensuring that Prince (now King or Kabaka) Ronald Muwenda Mutebi appeared in the NRA battlefield alongside Museveni and his bush war fighters as a way of endorsing the struggle.