New Vision mourns veteran journalist Peter Busomoke

Peter Busomoke, 67, a photographer at New Vision succumbed to diabetes Saturday morning at Kiruddu Hospital in Makindye. His daughter, Mercy Busomoke, said Busomoke was early this year diagnosed with liver sclerosis and has also been battling diabetes.

Busomoke is survived by a wife, 11 children and grandchildren. She said on Friday night, he failed to sleep as a result of persistent vomiting.

"When we measured his blood sugar, it was so low so we decided to give him glucose. However, it did not work as the sugar levels kept dropping. At 6:00am we rushed him to Kiruddu Hospital and he died an hour later, with his wife, my brother and I by his side," she said.

She added that tentatively, there would be a vigil at the family home in Nakulabye and he would be buried at Kakiri, Mpegwe.

Busomoke's immediate supervisor, Jimmy Adriko, New Vision's photo editor, described him as a passionate person, who would not rest till he saw that he had done his work perfectly. He said Busomoke covered big events such as Pastor Robert Kayanja's wedding, and the weddings of the first family.

Busomoke, who came from the Democratic Republic of Congo became a citizen of Uganda in 1986. He worked for the Economy newspaper, which was owned by Kakooza Mutale, around 1986.

He has worked as a correspondent for Reuters and AFP as well. His last assignment for New Vision before he fell ill was in July this year, photographing the influx of refugees from South Sudan through Koboko.

His daughter described him as a best friend to all his children, and a resilient man despite the illness.

"Our father was ill, but he didn't want to show us. He was courageous. He remained encouraging and we were hopeful for the best. He diligently took his medication," she said.

Felix Osike the weekend editor, "It is big loss to the media  fraternity . He was a very fine photographer and had an international profile having worked with  some  foreign news agencies. I was  with him in the Democratic  Republic of Congo  and South  Sudan to cover  the wars there and he was always  the darling  of the soldiers  because of his best shots."

He added: "The soldiers would always  tease  him that  the rosary he wore religiously  would not save him from the bullets . But he never removed it, saying it was his shield. He was also our  translator  in the DR Congo because he knew  Lingala and French.  I again  covered with him the  Commonwealth  Heads of State  Meeting  (CHOGM) in Abuja, Nigeria in 2003   where he had been chosen as the official  photographer of the  Commonwealth Secretariat. We shall greatly miss him and his jokes."