Moses Matovu Legendary Afrigo Band, Dies at 77

Moses Matovu the most celebrated and longest-running band for more than half a century. Matovu died on the morning of September 24, 2026, after suffering a fall while being beaten by unidentified assailants on a street in Kampala. He was 77. Born on June 19, 1949, in Kawempe Division, Kampala District, to Abdallah Bukenya and Solome Nakitto, Matovu moved with his mother to Mengo at age 5 following his parents’ separation. He attended Namirembe Primary School, Kibuli Secondary School and Pillai’s Secondary School on a scholarship from the Buganda Kingdom, but his education was cut short in 1966 when traditional Ugandan institutions were abolished. With school no longer an option, Matovu turned his attention to football and, in 1967, to music, joining the Thunderbirds Band as a vocalist. Matovu went on to perform with the Police Band starting in 1968 and the Cranes Band from 1969, before he and a group of friends founded Afrigo Band in 1974. He remained with the group for the rest of his life, serving as its definitive leader, principal instrumentalist and lead vocalist as Afrigo Band grew into Uganda’s most celebrated and enduring musical institution. Over the decades, the band released numerous recordings, including “Akola Bwenkanya,” “Musa,” “Enneyisa,” “Rose Guma,” “Onnemye” and “Nnemeddwa,” largely composed by Charles Ssenkyanzi, alongside “Obangaina,” written by fellow Afrigo member Rachael Magoola. Moses Matovu’s decades of leadership carried Afrigo Band across more than 50 years of Ugandan musical history, and his saxophone and voice remain inseparable from the sound that came to define the country’s modern music tradition.