To whom have these gallant Ugandans left their bequest?

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OPINION

By Dr Myers Lugemwa

In the African culture, it is sacrilegious to talk about the dead’s deeds. If one did, whatever is to be said about the dead is always the good part of the dead’s life on Mother Earth. The diabolical part is spared for fear of the dead person's spirit being invoked or the bereaved relatives and friends' displeasure being unleashed on you.

In this regard, however, I will not fear the spirits or displeasure of the relatives or friends of the most recent deaths this country has witnessed in the last eight weeks; deaths from road traffic accidents (19 in the Kikuube lorry accident, among others), disease, murder, suicide, etc. To this phenomenon, I say, may the souls of these persons rest in eternal peace (RIP).                                                  

While all the deceased have left a mark of some sort while they still breathed, I will particularly pick on four or five because these people have left a mark/footprint of not only good works but etiquette and ethics that have left sober Ugandans asking themselves as to who these demised gallant brothers/fathers/mother in the names of Professor George Kanyeihamba, Professor Livingstone Luboobi and Hon. Rhoda Kalema, Hon. Karoro Okurut, Dr Elike, Dr Samula have bequeathed their bequest.

I must make a disclaimer that what I am penning about the late Professor George Kanyeihamba and Hon. Rhoda Kalema is what I have heard people say about them, read about their professional, political, and social works and family life. But for Professor Livingstone Luboobi, I will dare say that over and above what the people he interacted with at whatever level ( pupil, student lecturer, professor of Mathematics and later Vice Chancellor) I knew him fairly well right from his days in S.1 at Ntare School from Mitondo Primary School in the then Kkooki County, when we would go to visit him as small children, being a cousin, the purpose of which visit was but to eat bread and marmalade schools like Ntare were served at their evening teas.

Professor Luboobi was a down-to-earth academic, non-corruptible teacher and Vice Chancellor. I recall him chasing away one of his cousins who had coincidentally come to visit him as he marked math papers for A-Level, one of the papers this cousin had sat for. In his humble, slow tone, Professor had this to say. " Go back home. Come back on Tuesday when I'm done with marking. I don't want anybody to associate your mark with your visit".

Professor George was born on August 11, 1939, to the late Zakaliaya Bafwokworora and Kyenda Malyamu in Kinaba, Kinkizi rose from a village boy through Kigezi High School, Busoga College, Mwiri to Portsmouth University, to Warwick University, earning a doctorate of Laws there to become a distinguished and accomplished academic, legal practitioner and justice of the Supreme Court. His illustrious career spanned decades, including Minister, MP, among others. Like most Bakiga, Prof. Kanyehaimba spoke with conviction, disagreed to agree or agreed to disagree.

I only got to know about the late Professor George Kanyeihamba through some of his court judgments in newspapers and talks in some circles. If your case was before His Lordship, like North courters at Makerere used to say during a football match ''We either win or they lose," and so was the case if your matter was before His Lordship Professor Kanyeihamba; you either won the case if you had not committed the crime or lost if you had done the contrary.

The single time I physically got in contact with the late was when one of his family friends took me to the professor’s home for a medical advisory. Realizing that we could not stand the looks and barking of his ferocious dogs in the compound, the professor jokingly said in Rukiga," Banamwe muratiina emba nka abereere”, literally meaning that we were afraid of the dogs like kids before being ushered in.

The late Hon. Rhoda Kalema came from a stock of honest men and women whose asset is their forthrightness in dealing with public issues, their sense of candour in managing relationships and brilliance in debate about what a country or an institution needed. Her incredible life inspired many women, men and youth many of whom have followed her footsteps since the 1960s. No wonder the late is known as the Mother of the Uganda Parliament.

Hon. Mary Karoro Okurut, whose candle burned out the other day, " did not sire any biological children but was mother to many. "She embraced motherhood through mentorship and a motherly touch, as evidenced by former students who went through her guidance at Makerere University. " Her desk was a sanctuary for aspiring writers.                                                                                                   

Politically, she injured nobody but defended polices with restraint from insulting critics.

Dr Peter Paul Eliki: A seasoned Ugandan Chest Physician who, until recently, was working with WHO, the late Dr Eliki was a pillar of strength, wisdom and love not only for his students that passed through his hands, but his patients as well. His kindness and dedication will forever remain an inspiration to all level-headed Ugandans.

Dr George William Samula:  A graduate of Birmingham University in Dental Surgery, run a dental clinic at Uganda house, was utterly shocked when an incident involving a sitting president, Dr Apollo Milton Obote, was brought to him for emergency treatment amidst intrigue and fanfare with hordes of heavily armed bodyguards recalling Obote’s fear of needles. Dr Samula was a consummate professional and refined gentleman whom a whole President could entrust his dental problem without bias.

We currently live in the Dot-Com era, the era of the G-Zs, the era of little respect for etiquette and ethics, the era of where every Tom, Dick and Hurry is powerful, the era of where the rule of law, I mean traffic law among others, is rarely, if at all respected, the era, where the other day, a director of a training school in Lira could cane a fellow man publically without the law taking course. The era where most disciplines have gone to the dogs or the dogs have invaded disciplines.

If Uganda has to be the Uganda these fallen gallant Ugandans (and many others not mentioned in this treatise), to whom have these people bequeathed their legacy for continuity?

With or without biological heirs, these personalities have not only sired integrity, intellectual and professional values, but above all, a culture which, Ugandans, young and old, will be indebted to for a very long time.

RIP!

The writer is a Senior Citizen