John Baptist Kaggwa

Kaggwa died on 20 January 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda of COVID-19, which he had first contracted two months prior.

In June 2020 he asked the Ugandan government to consider postponing the 2021 Ugandan general election because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kaggwa was concerned that with mass rallies and canvassing events replaced with virtual campaigning the electorate not be engaged. He feared the measures would favour incumbent candidates and proposed delaying the election by up to two years. At the same time Kaggwa campaigned for arcade shop-owners to be allowed to reopen, as shopping malls had been allowed to do so.

On 6 July 2019, Kaggwa was the Principal Consecrator of his replacement, Bishop Serverus Jjumba as the Ordinary of Masaka Diocese. Kaggwa then retired as bishop but continued to work in the diocese as directed by Bishop Jjumba. Three days after his retirement Kaggwa called for private investigators to look into the murder of Brother Norbert Emmanuel Mugarura, the Superior General of the Brothers of St. Charles Lwanga religious order who was killed in university premises.

On 19 December 1994, he was appointed the coadjutor Bishop of Masaka. He was consecrated bishop on 24 June 1995 by his predecessor, Bishop Adrian Kivumbi Ddungu. He succeeded as Bishop of Masaka, Uganda on 10 January 1998. Under his leadership the diocese supported development projects including the construction of new schools, homes, shops and farms. The income from these projects helped fund the diocese and a shopping arcade was named after Kaggwa. During his time as bishop the diocese set up its own radio station, Centenary FM.

He was ordained a priest on 12 December 1971 in Rome, at the age of 28. Following his doctoral studies, he was appointed vice-rector of the Pontifical College of St Paul, in Rome, for five years. He returned to Uganda in the 1980s and was appointed the first rector of St. Mbaaga Seminary at Ggaba.4

In 1965, Archbishop Joseph Kiwanuka sent him to study at Pontifical Urban University, in Rome, on scholarship. He was ordained deacon in May 1970 in Rome. He held a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Canon Law and Secular Law, awarded by Pontifical Urban University.

John Baptist Kaggwa (23 March 1943 – 20 January 2021) was a Ugandan Catholic prelate who was Bishop of the Diocese of Masaka, where he served as the Ordinary from 10 January 1998 until his retirement on 16 April 2019. For a period of more than three years, from 19 December 1994 until 10 January 1998, Kaggwa served as Coadjutor Bishop of Masaka, Uganda.

He was born on 23 March 1943 at Bulenga, Busiro County, Wakiso District, in the Buganda Region of Uganda. He attended Lubaga Boys Primary School from 1952 until he completed Primary 6 in 1957. He then joined Kisubi Minor Seminary in 1958. While at Kisubi, he studied Latin. Later he studied at Katigondo Major Seminary, were he studied Philosophy.