Talented Ugandan musician Sera passes on

By Joseph Ssemutooke

LESS than a month after very promising youthful musician Mr. X passed on, another up-and-coming Ugandan musician has died. And while Mr. X was a gent, this time it is a female singer the grim reaper has snatched, in the form of Sera of the Contagious fame.

Sera, whose real names are Sarah Nampijja, and who was in her mid-twenties, is reported to have died from ulcers yesterday evening while returning from a burial in Masaka.  

According to various musician sources who were part of her close circles, the youthful dancehall singer was returning from the burial of the father of a one Ken, her producer, when she developed stomach complications and died within minutes.

Musician Jemimah Ssanyu, who was quite close to the deceased, said yesterday that Sera developed stomach complications while in the vehicle returning to Kampala and shortly started vomiting blood, and by the time she was rushed to hospital it was too late to save her life.

But while the cause of her death remained quite unclear, some people were afraid that the singer could have died from the deadly Ebola disease that has once again showed up in Uganda over the last few days.

In the wake of the breaking of her death, some people were still apprehensive that the complications that claimed the musician, as well as the rapidity with which she passed, all pointed to Ebola as the cause.

Apart from Contageous which had enjoyed enormous airplay, Sera had also released several other songs such as Sunrise and Deliver.

She was reportedly signed onto the Muyenga-based Swangz Avenue production house, and was often seen in the company of musicians and producers from the record house.