A GoFundMe fundraiser with a target of £300,000 (about Shs1.5bn) for a heart transplant for Cedric Babu went live on May 29, 2025. At least 10 per cent had been collected in the first 24 hours.
Cedric Babu is currently in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a hospital in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. Doctors in Nairobi have referred him to London for a heart transplant, the only hope there is for the former Kampala Central parliamentary aspirant.
His friends, family, those who have worked with him, and those who know him talked of him as a good person as they rallied Ugandans to contribute funds to “save” Cedric Babu.
In a united country of sane, loving and patriotic citizens, humanity requires that people help one another in times of need, and that they feel each other’s pain.
But for Uganda, a country divided along the disagreeing groups of the haves and havenots, the oppressed and the oppressors, people seem to have lost the sense of feeling pain for others on the opposite side.
On the opposite side of Cedric Babu’s friends, family, those who have worked with him, and those who know him is a group that is disgruntled with the way the country is running.
This group associates Cedric Babu with the regime in Kampala (and Entebbe): his father Francis Babu is a former housing minister and his mother Olive Kigongo Zaitun heads the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce – Olive Kigongo was previously associated with Moses Kigongo, the national vice chairman of President Yoweri Museveni’s ruling NRM – while Cedric Babu’s step mother Margaret Nantongo Zziwa is a former speaker of the East African Legislative Assembly.
The group also considers Cedric Babu’s relationship with first son and Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba – as well as his Patriotic League of Uganda (PLU).
First, Muhoozi has previously listed Cedric among his best friends, as reported Here.
Also, Cedric Babu is a top leader for PLU in Kampala.
The group that has not welcomed the idea of fundraising for Cedric Babu’s heart transplant is fronting issues related to his association with the regime as their main reason.
They for example say that he should not be flown abroad, especially Europe and other Western countries, because the regime in Kampala considers such countries as colonialists and imperialists.
Others are even sharing that he should be taken to former minister Sam Kuteesa’s church for prayers. The mega church by Kuteesa was a matter of discussing, with some arguing that the former minister should have built a hospital instead of a church.
Sam Kuteesa built the church after cancer treatment abroad.
With such divisions as exemplified by the comments, some people are calling for national healing, and they believe it is not too late.
Some of the reactions to Cedric Babu heart transplant GoFundMe fundraiserCedric Babu’s heart transplant fundraising that had raised £29,499 (about 10 per cent of the required money) by publication time.
You can read our earlier report on Cedric Babu’s heart transplant fundraising Here.
The mixed reactions to Cedric Babu’s heart transplant fundraising come after President Museveni and first lady Janet issued a joint apology to Buganda and all Ugandans, prompting some to tell them to retire peacefully if they mean it, as reported Here.
Meanwhile, first lady Janet Museveni has spoken about a ‘significant transition’ and a ‘defining moment’ in Uganda, as reported Here.
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