By Mulengera Reporters
On Wednesday inside Rubaga Cathedral, fallen senior lawyer and DP stalwart JB Kakooza’s widow Irene K Mulyagonja (also a senior Justice of the Constitutional Court/Court of Appeal) had no kind words for the quality of services they received and the valuable time they lost at Mulago Hospital.
Mulyagonja, who never expected to go through what she endured at the hands of negligent Mulago staff as she nursed her husband, wondered what ordinary persons (who have never been IGG like herself and aren’t high profile judges like herself) go through.
Renowned for her truthfulness and never being one to mince words, Mulyagonja said that they were admitted in Ward 6B which is supposed to be the very best and the VIP of some sort for Uganda’s National Referral Hospital. She made it clear that from what she saw and experienced, there is nothing specialized and national referral about what remains of Mulago. She said when they chose Ward 6B, where people pay some subsidized fee and get entitled to the best health services Uganda has to offer, they expected their money’s worth only to end up totally frustrated.
Speaking with her characteristic clarity of words, Mulyagonja narrated how time came and her husband became so weak and had to be fed through the NG tube, which ironically wasn’t available and couldn’t readily be found inside Mulago’s 6B. She moved hundreds of mourners (who included high profile leaders from mainly the opposition including Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago) to tears when she narrated how “the so-called national specialized referral hospital couldn’t even provide a shot of insulin” at the time her husband required it most and urgently.
JB Kakooza, a former NSSF Corporation Secretary and also a big-name human rights lawyer who for decades was linked to DP, was at Mulago for several days and Mulyagonja, his widow with whom they birthed three children, recalled a day when several hours lapsed as health workers kept playing hide and seek on them. The patient required basic medication which had to be administered to him on time, but 24 hours was lost as medical team members played hide and seek.
Mulyagonja was appalled that instead of informing them as family members that that required medicine (insulin) wasn’t available, the medics kept duping them that someone coming on the next shift was the one to administer the same only to lose the whole day in that hide & seek. That there is so much she saw and went through in those few days to the extent that she can write a book about it.
The former IGG also told of another incidence when the medical teams at Mulago’s 6B took 24 hours to conduct a CBC test (Complete Blood Count) and deliver to them the results yet this is a basic test which takes less than 30 minutes at any basic laboratory in Kampala or even its suburbs.
The eminent Judge asserted that what she saw and experienced at Mulago left her convinced what the country has there at Mulago isn’t the national referral hospital it’s claimed to be anymore but a mere “monument.” She implied that what they endured at Mulago was an indignity that amounted to humiliating her husband who was a decent and compassionate generous man throughout his life time. “If U don’t say this, U would have betrayed John because he too fought for the rights of others,” declared Irene Mulyagonja. Full video of her speech here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGUoOqDOGg4.
Apparently, there is a lot Mulyagonja (who has medical insurance being a high profile judicial officer) learnt about the affordability or lack of health services in contemporary Uganda. She was in Mbale March this very year when a phone call came through communicating an emergency. JB Kakooza, her wedded husband and father of her three children including one who studies in Barcelona, had collapsed at home as a result of what was subsequently diagnosed to be a stroke.
As a caring spouse, she rushed back to Kampala and Ian Clark’s IHK hospital based in Kisugu is where they took him first and spent there a few days. Unfortunately, he didn’t properly respond to treatment and the other very complicating factor were the medical bills which were shooting through the roof. Mulyagonja told mourners that much as she is a judge and a high profile person, she quickly realized there is no way she single-handedly was going to afford this regardless of the generous support she kept getting from JB’s friends and her workmates, the fellow judges.
“I’m a Judge and there is no way I was going to keep moving from one place to another begging for contributions.” She told mourners that was too much indignity and she wasn’t prepared to go through it however much she loved her JB and was determined to do everything she can to save him.
When the IHK bills proved unsustainable, a decision was taken to transfer JB to Nsambya hospital owned by the Catholic Church which JB Kakooza loyally served and was even great family friends with its apex leaders namely Cardinal Wamala, Archbishop Paul Ssemwogerere and others.
Indeed, Mulyagonja says the two prelates, who used to visit and have happy moments at the couple’s home initially in Muyenga and later on Nsambya, were very supportive in JB’s final two months. She says Ssemwogerere is one personal friend she kept running to for support as her children’s dad fought for his life-yet he didn’t have even a penny left on him.
But even when the two prelates were solidly behind her besides other family friends who were supportive, Mulyagonja told mourners that time came and she had to leave Nsambya because the bills were shooting through the roof. She says that how a decision was taken to relocate him to Mulago which was considered cheaper and equally good, if not better being a public facility owned by the GoU. She explained what they endured in Mulago was disaster and only made life more complicated for them. Ut was the total opposite of what they anticipated!
That when a CBC couldn’t be promptly done and basic things such as insulin and NG tube (to facilitate his feeding) couldn’t be promptly provided or found, a decision was taken by the family to leave and that’s how they ended up at Nsambya-based Mukwaya General Hospital from where they eventually lost JB on Saturday night.
They couldn’t let their loved one die at Mulago when they are seeing without them doing something. Mulyagonja says that even at Mukwaya, the bills were too high but she is thankful God provided in ways she never expected. Indeed, it was at Mukwaya’s that JB Kakooza, a very principled man who was denied job opportunities in public offices including serving as a Judge because of his unwillingness to compromise on his DP values of truth and justice, breathed his last Saturday night.
In her speech, a tearful Mulyagonja drew a clear contrast making everyone present to reflect on what awaits the ordinary poor Ugandans at the country’s so-called public hospitals if a high profile and easily recognizable person like herself could be subjected to so much torment and neglect by medics at Mulago hospital, moreover 6B, which is supposed to be the national referral hospital’s center of excellence.
She thanked her spiritual leaders, fellow workmates at the Judiciary and her siblings (ex-Minister Flavia Nabugere Munaaba, Ester Mulyagonja & others) for being there for her and for her fallen husband JB too.
Outside the Church, MPs like Richard Ssebamala, Richard Lumu and others praised Mulyagonja for candidly using her eulogy to publicize the rot and the general decline in service quality at Mulago and other public health facilities.
“It’s good she has said it herself as opposed to keeping quiet about what she saw. We have been talking about this and advocating for more funding for the health sector during every budgeting process. We are ignored and easily dismissed because we are politicians but her experience has highlighted the fact that no one is going to be immune to inefficiencies in our public health system. For long, it has been the elephant in the room and we thank God for using thus judge of court of appeal to call it out and address it for what it is,” Sebamala said.
His colleague Lumu asserted that the only way this country can make sure JB Kakooza and others who have departed so far, as a result of failure to access quality medical services, don’t die in vain is by continuing to mount pressure on the government to ensure that we begin to spend on the health sector more sufficiently.
Even ordinary people in the church praised Mulyagonja for realizing the duty and obligation that comes with holding such a high profile position, and going on to use the platform that comes with it, to speak out about the ever worsening deprivation of citizens’ right to access appropriate medical services. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
