Obituary
its headquarters on Mulago’s campus. “He has that really
Courtesy Photo/New Vision Uganda
Lawrence Kaggwa
Ugandan surgeon and hospital director.
Born in Kiryasaka, Uganda, on April 9, 1948,
he died after a series of heart complications
in Kampala, Uganda, on Nov 10, 2017,
aged 69 years.
In early 1977, there was an outbreak of an unknown disease
near a town in eastern Uganda where Lawrence Kaggwa
was stationed as a medical superintendent. There were
few safety supplies available and basic medical equipment
was running low, but Kaggwa was determined to find out
what was killing people in the nearby community. He took
throat swabs, urine samples, and blood tests from the
patients. When everything turned up negative, he realised
he was dealing with something rare and dangerous, he
told the local Daily Monitor newspaper in a 2014 interview.
He kept working, though, treating patients and organising
a quarantine of the community. Later, after the epidemic
had passed, WHO confirmed that it had been an outbreak of
Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Kaggwa’s efforts had helped
end the epidemic before it could spread any farther.
Throughout his career, Kaggwa showed a willingness to
do whatever was necessary to help his country, whether it
was treating Marburg or taking control of Mulago National
Referral Hospital at a time when the facility had to tackle
corruption and when he could have made more money
in private practice. “He was very much in touch with the
people he served”, said Alex Coutinho, who worked closely
with Kaggwa in his role as the executive director of the
AIDS Support Organisation Uganda (TASO), which has
www.thelancet.com Vol 392 October 6, 2018
personal touch, whilst still being an excellent doctor,
surgeon, and teacher”, said Coutinho, who is executive
director of Partners in Health in Rwanda.
Kaggwa originally wanted to be a mathematician but
switched to medicine after he entered Makerere University
in the Ugandan capital Kampala. He graduated in 1974 with
a bachelor of medicine, bachelor of surgery degree. From
there, he received official assignments working as a doctor
around the country until he returned to Makerere in 1977
to complete a masters degree in surgery. He graduated
in 1980 and worked in Mulago as a consulting surgeon
while maintaining his own small practice. Idi Amin rose to
power during Kaggwa’s undergraduate years and his violent
administration, which ended in 1979, devastated much of
the country, including Mulago. When a new government
asked Kaggwa to take over the facility in 1993, “that hospital
was almost dead”, according to Annettee Namukasa
Kaggwa, Kaggwa’s wife. “There was nothing there. He really
did a lot in the reconstruction of Mulago”, she said. Kaggwa
found the money to replace lost equipment and refurbish
the hospital, including overhauling 17 operating theatres.
He also pushed the staff at all levels to be more responsive to
the needs of their patients. “He could reach out to anyone.
He would connect with the cleaner. He would connect with
the consultants. He had the credibility of having worked as
a surgeon through the bad times and never abandoning the
country”, Coutinho said.
After 12 years, he moved to the ministry of health where
he took over as planning and development director. He
retired from the ministry in 2010 and became a private
consultant for Amref Health Africa’s Uganda office.
The non-profit organisation trains health workers and
strengthens community health systems. Kaggwa was
charged with starting a programme to provide safe medical
male circumcisions in a bid to reduce HIV transmission in
Uganda. His colleagues on the project wrote: “He was a
great teacher who had mastered his surgical skills and he
found great pleasure in passing on his knowledge.” He also
settled into a role as an elder statesperson of the Ugandan
medical community, taking on activities that would allow
him to mentor younger health officials and activists. That
included joining the Uganda Sickle Cell Rescue Foundation
as a founding board member in 2013. Sharifu Kiragga
Tusuubira, the organisation’s executive director, said
Kaggwa was willing to take on anything he was asked to
do, including rudimentary administrative tasks and making
personnel decisions and that “he was very involved from
drafting to implementation.” He also set up sickle cell clubs
in schools to help “raise awareness and promote behaviour
change”, Tusuubira said. Kaggwa is survived by two wives
and 12 children.
Andrew Green
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