Uganda Mourns as Music Legend Moses Matovu, Afrigo Band Founder, Killed in Kibuli Attack
Uganda's music family is in mourning today after the death of Moses Matovu, the saxophonist, vocalist and founding father of Afrigo Band, whose horn lines and voice became the sound of a nation for nearly six decades.
Matovu, 77, died early Thursday morning at Kibuli Hospital after he was attacked by unknown assailants at Kibuli Market Zone B in Makindye Division, Kampala. Kampala Metropolitan Police spokesperson Rachel Kawala confirmed that police at Kabalagala had registered a case of suspected murder involving the musician.
Preliminary information indicates the veteran musician was attacked as he made his way to a mosque for morning prayers. Investigators later recovered exhibits from the scene, including a concrete paver, with bloodstains found covered in ash near his car, and a woman identified only as Rose was arrested and taken by police to her room in the area as part of the investigation. For a man who gave Uganda so much music, his final hours were violent and senseless, a fact that has left fans, fellow musicians and government officials alike searching for answers. Local Government Minister Balaam Barugahara condemned the killing as a senseless act of violence and called on security agencies to identify, arrest and prosecute those responsible.
A Life Built on Music
Long before he became "Papa Moi" to generations of Ugandan music lovers, Matovu was a boy with a voice. He sang in the Namirembe Cathedral Choir as a child, later attending Namirembe Primary School, Kibuli schools, and Pillai's Secondary School. His formal education was cut short in 1966 following the abolition of Uganda's traditional kingdoms, since he had been studying on a Buganda Kingdom bursary. He turned briefly to football before settling on music as his life's calling.
Matovu stepped onto the professional music scene in 1967 as a vocalist with the Thunderbirds Band, before joining the Police Band in 1968 and the Cranes Band in 1969. When the Cranes Band eventually collapsed, Matovu refused to let the music die. He and a group of fellow musicians founded Afrigo Band in 1975, a group rooted in Congolese rumba and Ugandan traditional rhythms that would go on to become one of Uganda's longest-running and most influential live bands.
Over the decades, Matovu wore many hats within the band he helped build, serving variously as its leader, saxophonist, vocalist and composer. Among the songs he composed were Nantongo, Silina Anantwaala, Teri Mubi and Genda Osome. In 1983, the band moved its base to Kibuli, the very neighbourhood Matovu called home, and the place where his life would tragically end. Even in his late seventies, Matovu never truly stepped back from the stage or the boardroom. He was still performing and running the band's administration at 76, when Afrigo marked 50 years together in 2025, a milestone few Ugandan bands have ever reached.
A Nation Says Goodbye
With a career spanning nearly six decades, Matovu became one of the most recognisable figures in Uganda's live-band music tradition, playing a central role in keeping the genre alive through successive generations. His saxophone was more than an instrument; it was a thread running through half a century of Ugandan celebration, heartbreak, weddings, and national moments. Police say their task team remains at the scene conducting investigations to establish the full circumstances surrounding the attack, and have appealed for anyone with information to come forward.
Tonight, as Afrigo Band's music plays across the airwaves in his honour, Uganda says farewell to a man who turned his horn into the voice of a generation.