But 63-year-old Hussein Siliman Kyanjo was not your ordinary former MP. He served for only two terms between 2006 and 2016, but left a great mark on the politics of Uganda. Perhaps it is this incredible character that made him live in the shadow of death for the last 12 years.
In 2011, Kyanjo was diagnosed with dystonia, a rare disease that causes a movement disorder in which a person’s muscles contract uncontrollably. Wikipedia says the contraction causes the affected body part to twist involuntarily, resulting in repetitive movements or abnormal postures. Dystonia can affect one muscle, a group of muscles, or the entire body.
The disease can be hereditary or caused by other factors such as physical trauma or poisoning. For Kyanjo, it affected his most valued asset: the tongue. In our several interviews with him, he ruled out the possibility of it being hereditary and trauma, leaving poisoning as the only possibility.
Since 2011, Kyanjo has been hopping from one hospital to another. Because it is such a rare disease, even treatment is difficult and very expensive. He has been to hospitals in Uganda, Kenya, India, United Arab Emirates, and the United States of America.
Quite possibly, there in no MP on whom so much was spent on his medical bills. But because he was Kyanjo, who commanded respect from both sides of the political aisle, parliamentary leadership always signed off for his treatment. When he ceased being MP in 2016, the question was, who was going to foot the bills.
In fact, there were suggestions to talk to President Yoweri Museveni to provide him the funds. The president has always bailed out allies and foes alike. Bugiri municipality Member of Parliament Asuman Basalirwa, who replaced Kyanjo as the sole MP for the Justice Forum (JEEMA) political party, says Kyanjo refused the proposition.
“There is no way I can accept Museveni’s money to go for treatment. It doesn’t matter what I will do, I’m going to die. So, why should I sell my soul simply because I want to live yet we all know it’s just a matter of time before I die?” Basalirwa quotes Kyanjo as saying.
Immam Kasozi, who has known Kyanjo for at least 40 years and has been one of his closest friend, said although they had surely been in need, they had not been desperate. They would not allow Kyanjo to turn to the man he had spent all his adult life trying to remove for, among others, abuse of public resources spending them on cronies and buying opponents.
Instead, because of the social capital that Kyanjo had accumulated over the years, it was easy for Kasozi to fundraise for him every time he needed financial support for his extraordinary medical treatment.
The last time such an appeal for assistance was made was mid-last year when $30,000 was needed for his routine medical trip to India. That money was raised within days. But as the saying goes, when it rains, it pours; away from the dystonia that was slowly but surely eating away Kyanjo, in January 2019, he was hit with another devastating piece of news that he had stage-four cancer of the colon.
In an interview The Observer had with him shortly after he was diagnosed with the aggressive disease, Kyanjo, who had already struggled so much for his life, seemed like he had now given up on life. He talked about how he had learnt about the bad news.
“I was to travel to India for my routine check-up to see that the machines that were inserted in my body were working in sync with the charger. You know they told me not to pass through [metal detectors], but in this country you never know what has been put where; that’s why I needed to go back to my doctors in India,” Kyanjo said.
But he went to see his local doctor before traveling because he was having excruciating abdominal pain that he needed to check out.
“On [January 31, 2019], I saw the doctor who carried out a thorough check-up including an endoscopy. He told me, ‘You know Haji, you’re sicker than we expected’. I asked him what was wrong. He said I had stage-four cancer of the colon that had blocked much of my intestines,” Kyanjo said.
He was told to immediately stop eating solid foods, which were causing terrible pain upon digestion. The doctor also recommended some drugs as they carried out conclusive tests. He referred Kyanjo to India for specialised treatment.
Some believe that the so many medicines that he was taking for his dystonia perhaps caused the cancer. Now he had to deal with two debilitating diseases. The cancer increased the number of times he was in hospital, both within and outside the country. It also brought the reality close to home; he was living on borrowed time.
The doctors told him in 2019 he had just six months to live. When The Observer visited him back then, Kyanjo’s wife of over 40 years Sarah Kyanjo said he was ready to go. “It’s unfortunate but we thank Allah for his life; we are not scared at all. We are confident Allah will see us through. Whatever comes, he says he is ready; if it’s time to go, he says he is prepared,” Mrs Kyanjo said then.
But he pushed past the six months, sailing through the deadly Covid-19 pandemic that killed visibly healthier people, and it was during his last visit to India this year that he was told he was remaining with just weeks before he died.
Kyanjo was advised to return home because there was nothing more the hospital could do for him. When he returned to Uganda, he was wheeled into Kibuli hospital, where he was for some time for palliative care. However, about a month ago, he was told it was better to return home because he had just a week to live as most of his vital organs were starting to fail.
The clock started ticking; when the week elapsed, his family celebrated. One again, he had defied the doctors’ projection. He lived another two weeks. Perhaps, he would have given up the fight much earlier, but with the help of family and very close friends, what was initially meant to be a short six months became four years. But through all this, every new day Kyanjo knew he would not live to see the following day.
NTUUMA, BUKOMANSIMBI
Thousands thronged Ntuuma village last Sunday to say their farewells to a man they loved so much; a man who embodied humility and eloquence.
Everybody who spoke about him at Ntuuma, hailed him for his being consistent, incorruptible and a struggler for justice, equity and dignity. The Kabaka of Buganda in a message read for him by the deputy Katikkiro Twaha Kawaase, said Buganda had lost one of its finest.
The Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga said Kyanjo was different from most of the politicians the country has today. He was never motivated by quick financial gain at the detriment of the country.
Even NRM politicians like Haruna Kasolo, the state minister for Microfinance, said Kyanjo was one of the rarest breed of politicians that Uganda has ever had, who was consistent and committed to what he believed in and would never tire to espouse it, but doing so respectfully.
Kyanjo is survived by two wives, Sarah Kyanjo and Fatuma Shamira Nansimbe, and eight children – two boys and six girls.
Factfile
• Born in 1960 to Siliman Zirabamuzaale and Mariam Nabuuma in Ntuuma, Bukomansimbi.
• Studied at Bilal Islamic School, Bwaise, Kako Primary School, Masaka Secondary School and finally Makerere University for a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Fine Art.
• Joined parliament, representing Makindye West from 2006 to 2016 on the JEEMA ticket
• Diagnosed with dystonia in 2011, which came with a speech impediment that required him to be fitted with an electronic device that helped him to communicate.
• Died on July 22, 2023, due to complications from cancer of the colon and was buried on July 23 in Bukomansimbi
district.
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