Veteran Journalist Teddy Seezi Cheeye received Christ as his personal Lord and Savior during his 10-year jail sentence and was set to realign his publication, Uganda Confidential Newsmagazine towards spirituality, his close friend has told journalists.
James Tumusiime has told a local news daily that after walking out of Luzira Prison and putting his Uganda Confidential out, Cheeye realized he needed to change a few things about the magazine.
The Former director for Economic Monitoring in the Internal Security Organisation (ISO) however passed on March 1st, 2018.
Jinja road traffic officer ASP Bruce Oyinebye reported that the 60-year-old was knocked by a speeding boda boda cyclist while crossing from Shell Nakawa petrol station along Nakawa traffic lights.
“He was on his way from Makerere University Businness School, where he had gone to visit his son,” Traffic operatives said in a statement.
“He hit his head on a pavement, bled profusely and became unconscious. Sympathisers placed him at Shell Petrol Station shed as they waited for an ambulance. By the time it arrived, about an hour later, the journalist had already breathed his last,” an eye witness told the New Vision.
Cheeya is survived b y one wife and three children.
“We are celebrating his life as a family because he died a Born again Christian. He played his part, loved his family and now he is going to be with the Lord,” Alison Kantarama, Cheeya’s sister and assistant commissioner in charge of support services at Mulago hospital told media on Friday.
“He had become a born again Christian after he was introduced to the Bible by fellow prisoners, some of who he helped send there in the first place,” the Observer reported.
Tumusiime told media, Cheeye was determined to resume life from where he had stopped.
“It just appeared like nothing would stop him. You would expect somebody who comes out of jail having been jailed under the circumstances that he was jailed to lie low but still he was giving interviews to the media, writing articles,” he said.
Cheeye’s passing comes a year after his release from Luzira Prison, where he served a 10-year jail sentence over forgery, embezzlement of funds (sh200m) meant for global fund activities.
He will be laid to rest at his ancestral home in Luwero at 2:00pm on Sunday.
