Sick CFS soldier stuck in Germany for 10 years, cries out to Museveni

Medical reports and other documents seen by this publication show the accident damaged his spinal cord and caused dysfunction of his bladder, legs and reproductive system. Sergeant Bende was facilitated by the government and transferred three times to Werner-Wicker-Klinik in Germany in 1997, 2010 and 2013 for specialist surgeries.

But he has been stuck in Germany since 2013 due to unpaid hospital bills. Sergeant Bende now needs another urgent surgery but the hospital has since refused to treat him due to the accumulated debts of Shs1b outstanding.

“I’ve been in a catheter since August 17. Imagine it’s been almost three months now without surgery, but it was supposed to be removed in two weeks. I’m suffering… President Museveni, help me that I’m dying,” he said.

Major Jimmy Omara, the spokesperson for the SFC, acknowledged that Sergeant Bende suffered the said accident in 1996. But he said: “He was given time to go to hospital but when he stabilized and had to return and resume his duties, he decided to remain in the hospital. Germany… In 2017, he was removed from the SFC list and declared absent without official leave,” Major Omara told this publication last Tuesday.

Faruk Kirunda, Assistant Press Secretary to the Presidency, advised Sergeant Bende to officially write to the President through the Principal Private Secretary to explain the problem so that it can be handled.

On 27 January 1996, a day after marking National Resistance Army (NRA) Day in Kololo, Sergeant Bende and five other comrades retreated to Rwakitura and were assigned to go and prepare a site in Kazo, where First Lady Janet Museveni was to officiate. in an event.

Sergeant Bende says he traveled alongside Sergeant Nyombi, Tumuhimbise, Twongyirwe, Kamushoko, Jagenda and driver Semuyaba, who had just joined the then-transforming Presidential Protection Unit (PPU) in CFS.

“Our Jeep was involved in an accident, my companions suffered minor injuries, but I broke my spinal cord and damaged my gall bladder,” he says.

Sergeant Bende says he was taken to Mulago hospital where he received medical treatment until he was transferred to Rubaga hospital in July 1996.

“In Rubaga, the doctors discharged me after two months with a recommendation that I needed specialized treatment abroad,” he says.

In April 1997, the Ministry of Defense and Veterans Affairs facilitated Sgt Bende’s flight to Germany where he successfully underwent spinal surgery. “The doctors, however, recommended that I go back for a check-up in six months, which I did in 1998. The doctors, however, informed me that I needed another gallbladder surgery because it was affecting my urinary system ” said Sgt. says Bende.

A few years after returning, Sergeant Bende began experiencing problems with his urinary system. In 2007, the Ministry of Defense sent it to South Africa for an overhaul. It was then discovered that he needed surgery and catheters, which were not available there.

When he returned and realized that the ministry was slow on the matter, Sergeant Bende says he contacted Professor Stanley Tumwine, who was the Senior Presidential Adviser on Medical Affairs, about the matter.

He says Prof Tumwine then wrote to Ms Amelia Kyambadde, then the President’s Principal Private Secretary, who in turn notified her boss, prompting President Museveni to order the Ministry of Defense to act.

“This time I went through the Medical Council. I had my bladder removed and the doctors opted to replace my bladder with a duplicate, but it had a problem as it produced mucus, which had to be removed periodically,” she says.

Documents seen by this publication show that Sergeant Bende underwent surgery to increase the capacity of his bladder and create an artificial urinary sphincter. The operation exceeded the previously budgeted funds and when the doctors together with Sergeant Bende contacted the ministry, the acting Permanent Secretary for Defense, Rosette K Byengoma, authorized the additional treatment which cost €64,400 ( about Shs 255 million) and Sgt Bende returned home.

After the second surgery, doctors in Germany recommended that Sgt Bende undergo another surgery to improve the flow of urine and better position the knee and ankle joints.

This is because they had removed the original damaged bladder and replaced it with an artificial emptying bladder with catheters and special booties.

But his situation worsened in 2010, leading him to seek help in vain.

A May 23, 2011 letter from Professor Tumwine to the President says Sergeant Bende was to undergo genitourinary and orthopedic surgeries. The entire bill, including the purchase of the catheters, air ticket and maintenance for 18 days, would be €72,698 (about Shs288 million).

But Sergeant Bende did not ease up and his situation worsened, and in 2012 he contacted Ms. Idah Nantaba, the then Minister of State for Lands, to ask him to help her sell her land and house in Bweyogerere, a suburb of Kampala, so that she could facilitate her own surgery.

He says that he and the minister on February 24, 2012 met with the president. Mrs Nantaba said she had indeed brought the soldier to the President.

“… the President immediately ordered the Comptroller of the State House, Mrs. Lucy Nakyobe, to facilitate his medical journey. I don’t know what happened, but I later learned that he is suffering in Germany,” said Nantaba.

Sergeant Bende was later transferred to Germany and the surgeries were carried out as planned.

“The operation at the urology department, however, cost an additional 30,000 euros, and when we contacted Mrs Nakyobe, she did not send the money and told me to call the president,” says Sergeant Bende.

This publication has also seen a letter dated February 27, 2014, addressed to Ms Nakyobe and Prof Tumwine by Mr. Morneweg, the administrator of the WWK Hospital, on the subject.

But Ms Nakyobe said she did what the president had ordered her to do.

“When the president helps someone and issues a directive to the state house comptroller, the state house comptroller pays exactly the money written in the directive and that’s what I did. If I needed more money, I would have written to the president,” he said. say

“What he is doing now is seeking public sympathy and tarnishing people’s names. What hospital in this world can continue to treat someone for 10 years, and in a country like Germany? What I do know is that this man is going to be treated and reportedly refused to return home,” Nakyobe added.

Museveni’s visit to Berlin

In 2016, when President Museveni visited Germany for the German-African Business Day Forum, he said he directed his personal physician, Dr. Agnes Nekesa, to visit Sergeant Bende in hospital.

Sergeant Bende says Dr Nekesa did not inform him when she was going to the hospital and when she came she only visited the orthopedics department and did not visit the urology department.

“This is the day they buried me because if she had arranged a full medical checkup and a medical examination, she would have realized that I was still under medical treatment by WWK doctors for these urological problems and that I still needed an operation in the abdomen Prolonged urological treatment was necessary,” he says.

“Germany has never provided me with any other funds, apart from the money they give me so that I can pay the rent for my small flat and be able to buy the necessary food,” adds Sergeant Bende.

The SFC soldier on September 2, 2022, petitioned President Museveni, informing him that he required €241,778 (about Shs958 million) to be discharged from hospital. Sergeant Bende says: “Because of bad communication, I have not been able to access state support and I have not been able to live on the meager grants from the German government and loans from the local authority and their compatriots.”

He says he gets €460 (Shs1.8 million) for food monthly, €300 (Shs1.1 million) for rent and about €8,000 (Shs31.7 million) for other materials, including those used for to the catheter

The medical report of December 22, 2020 by Dr. Med M Nehiba, a urologist at the Department of Neuro-Urology, indicated that Sgt Bende was supposed to undergo surgery in 2020, after the previous ones in 1997, 1998 and 2007. , 2013, 2014 and 2017. This surgery, however, has never been performed.

Faruk Kirunda, Presidential Press Secretary: I advised him to write officially to the President through the current Principal Private Secretary to explain the matter so that it can be dealt with.

Idah Nantaba, former minister: He was really in bad shape, and that prompted me to take him straight to the President who directed the then State House Comptroller, Lucy Nakyobe, to facilitate his journey.

The former Comptroller of the Statute, Lucy Nakyobe: When the president issues a directive to the intervention of the state house, he or she makes the payment and that’s what I did. If he needed more money, he would have written to the president.