Veteran sports journalist Luwandagga dies

KAMPALA - The sports fraternity in Uganda is yet to come to terms with the death of veteran journalist Andrew Patrick Luwandagga.

Sources at national broadcaster UBC, where he was working by the time of his death, said he was in office on Friday where he chaired a meeting on the upcoming World Cross Country Championship.

That was hours before he was pronounced dead Saturday morning.

Close family members say there was a quarrel at Luwandagga's home between two of his sons which annoyed him before he collapsed and died.

His wife Sarah told New Vision that by the time she was called to see her husband, he was already dead.

The two had five children together.

Mourners at the home of the Luwandaggas in Namasuba, Kampala on Saturday. In blue is the widow, Sarah

Mourners at the home of the late Andrew Patrick Luwandagga

Luwandagga had become a TV icon, saying recently that he developed interest in the media while in Primary Seven at Nakivubo Primary School in 1970.

He went to Nabagereka Primary School in Kabaka's palace from 1963 to 1966 when the palace was overrun and the school relocated. He finished Primary Seven at Nakivubo Primary School before joining Old Kampala S.S which was an Asian-dominated school.

At Old Kampala, he became popular in cricket and boxing and after the Asians were expelled in 1972 by then-president Idi Amin, he became the cricket school team captain.

After O-Level, Luwandagga was invited to join the East African Airways in Nairobi but when the East African Community (EAC) collapsed in 1977, he returned to Uganda and that is when he joined UTV (now UBC).

'Happiest moment of my life'                                                         

He has been the second Vice-President of the Federation of International Cinema and Television Sports based in Milan, Italy.

The veteran journalist has been married to Sarah since 1985, and once described his marriage as "the happiest moment in my life because it showed that I had matured".

In one of the interviews he gave to the media, Luwandagga said during his free time he would listen to Afrigo Band and watch sports, football in particular.

In the early 1970s before joining broadcasting, he used to pack clothes for his mother. "I was paid sh42 each time I did the work," he said.

He said his childhood dream was to become an air steward or diplomat, because he loved travelling.