Kyaggwe TV is a blog operating in a demand driven manner to respond to what best suits the needs of the communities because ideally, this is the people’s platform disseminating and serving nothing but the truth.
In that respect, we are introducing a page titled ‘Agenda 2026’ aimed at opening the window for public figures, opinion leaders, and people’s leaders especially politicians both sitting and upcoming, to shine a torch in their past life, and hence give Ugandans an opportunity to get a glimpse of what may be expected from them.
Why Agenda 2026? For over two decades now, Ugandans have been given the opportunity to check the leadership at all levels by holding elections every five years; aspirants are allowed to lay bare their agendas and reasons for seeking public representation. New ones introduce their hitherto unknown abilities while sitting ones seek further mandate to finalize what remains undone and explain reasons for this shortcoming.
Today we are hosting Kassanda Deputy Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Mike Ssegawa, who was recently transferred from Mukono, and he shares the story of his journey from childhood to his present status.
Ssegawa, a time tested journalist, has widely travelled locally, in Africa and beyond, has served at several media houses including Sunrise, Daily Monitor and he is currently the proprietor of a social media network, www.watchdoguganda.com. He is now employed by the Office of the President as its representative in Kassanda district.
Because of time, space and other limitations, we may not be able to go to the-nitty gritty of our host’s life history but we are determined to as much as possible cover relevant issues to the dot.
Born to Mr. and Mrs. John Chrysostom Ssentongo years ago, Mike Ssegawa began his education career at St. Paul’s Primary School Banda in Nakawa Division, later going to Sir Apollo Kaggwa Senior Secondary School in Seeta-Nazigo in Nakisunga sub-county, Mukono district.
He made a stint at Nyenga Seminary in Buikwe district starting 1993 where he was enrolled for his secondary education after the death of his father. He says that his mother could not afford school fees single handedly as a single mother, and an Italian Priest Fr. Benedict Biagioli, gave a helping hand.
At school, as an ardent sports enthusiast, Ssegawa participated in many games. This passion moved on with him and this may be the explanation why he is the proprietor of Ssegawa Sports Centre in Mukono town. The condition for his continued stay at Nyenga Seminary was scoring high grades all the time because anything short of this was unconditional dismissal.
He later got attached to Don Bosco Institute in Bombo, who after sometime deployed him to Nairobi in Kenya where he trained youths in a street boys project, arming them with skills development. He later moved on to Addis Ababa Ethiopia, on a similar mission.
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Interest in media work was stimulated during his teaching service at Don Bosco School Embu in Kenya, after his bachelor’s degree at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. It was while in Kenya that he got acquainted with one of the founders of the Monitor Publications, Charles Onyango Obbo, and he recommended him to begin work with the newspaper.
While working at the Monitor as Jinja Bureau Chief, the US State Department offered him a fellowship in Developmental Journalism in Oklahoma, where he continued to shine. On return in 2011, he rejoined the Monitor; this was the time when elective politics was at its peak in Uganda. So much so that even the media was affected, both positively and negatively.
In an interview with Kyaggwe TV’s Richard Ssentaayi on the Program Okikola Otya? Ssegawa denies being an enemy of the National Unity Platform or the opposition for that matter, saying his affiliation is to peace loving and work minded Ugandans, regardless of their political thinking. “My grass root construction has been and remains loving and serving all”, he contends.
On exit from The Monitor, Ssegawa opened up a website in Ntinda in 2015 and began his own news outlet, The Watchdog, which is flourishing to date. Not done, he went for a media convergence in China partly to intensify his operation of news dissemination away from mainstream print and electronic to website use.
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At about the same time, the urge for positive politics rose in him. He says he was and remains convinced that politics is not only about being elected into power, as 60 per cent of political needs are addressed and determined by invisible players, with elected or visible players taking only 40 per cent.
“Like chefs who you do not see in a restaurant and only see waiters, so is politics where you only see only vote hunters and not decision makers; when the waiters are not in the waiter’s good books, how do you expect to get the best soup from the kitchen,” Ssegawa who was speaking in parables, noted. Driving the point home, he said, “Mukono pays more taxes than Kamuli but the latter has more street lights and tarmac because they have waiters who have issues with the chef”.
Ssegawa said it is painful to note that in the 90s, Colline Hotel was the only hotel of its class in Mukono, and to date, two decades later, it remains on top despite the current development trend giving room for others to rise up.
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Although the Deputy RDC was all along very cautious to avoid being seen as blowing his own trumpet, Ssegawa could not help saying this, “To me leadership is inborn. At university I was a guild leader, at work places I continued to grow from promotion to promotion; at The Monitor, I started work much later than many but I was continually promoted and at one time I had about 100 reporters under me”.
Without elaborating, he attributed many unresolved issues at the grass roots to poor leaders with no vision, who have not made efforts to work for achievement of this. He added that having travelled widely in Africa, Asia and Europe, he has seen it all and now wants to more widely share his experience with Mukono Municipality people by presenting their views to parliament come 2026.
Ssegawa who was Mukono Municipality councillor till his resignation on having scooped the Deputy RDC seat, stood on an independent ticket. As RDC, he says he is now in position to influence the Town Clerk, the Mayor and other leaders, and that he nurses the ambition not of becoming politically powerful, but being an influencing and change agent.
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