Uganda's first health minister passes on

Dr Emmanuel Lumu, Uganda's first post-independence health minister, who was also in the first cohort of Ugandans to qualify as medical doctors, has passed away.

Lumu passed away at his home in Bakuli, a Kampala suburb on Tuesday, according to a close family source, who revealed that he had been battling illness for some time.

One of Lumu's last public appearances was before the Land Commission in December 2018, when he was asked to explain how he acquired land in Makerere, Kagugube Zone.

However, Lumu, bound in wheel-chair, could hardly talk, which prompted the commission to seek collect evidence from other means other than his open testimony.

He served as a medical practitioner at Mulago Hospital before he was appointed health minister shortly after Uganda attained independence.

Lumu was a close friend to Kabaka Edward Mutesa, Uganda's first president. At the health ministry, Lumu set out to establish regional hospitals, a plan initially scuttled by the regime.

Three years into his term, Lumu and a few of his colleagues took part in the 1966 failed coup to oust Prime Minister Apollo Milton Obote, for which they were subsequently arrested.

They were released in 1971 after Amin overthrew Obote. After serving jail time, Lumu quit politics and started a private clinic in Kisenyi, a Kampala suburb.