Lessons from the Olympics: The Importance of a Focused Strategy

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have just concluded. There are a number of facts which followers of the world’s greatest show of athletic prowess have come to expect. One is that the dominant industrialized nations are perennially at the top. The three nations with the leading GDP- USA, China and Japan- have come out at the top in the same succession order, as long before.

Perhaps it is only expected that because of their advanced resources they have invested in building a competitive athletic programme. Indeed, there are a number of games, like golf and swimming, which require certain critical capital investments, which poorer countries can’t afford. As a matter of fact, some of the best athletes from Africa have been known to migrate to the more advanced nations because of their better well-funded programs.

There is though one less obvious aspect we find out of these Olympics. Some nations like Kenya ( #19) have outrivaled far richer nations like Spain ( # 22) or Belgium ( # 29). This is not new. Why Kenya is normally is at the top of far more advanced nations can be explained by a simple observation worth commenting.

The dominance of Kenyan athletes in track and field is universally acknowledged. Her runners perennially dominate the Marathon circuit. It came as no surprise to many that Kenyan runners scooped both men and women’s marathon gold.

Incidentally Kenya, just like Uganda, which equally performed spectacularly well ( # 36) did not send as large a contingent. India sent 127 athletes but came out ranking lower at 48. Kenya sent 85 athletes to compete in just 6 events who bagged 4 gold. Contrast this with South Africa that sent 179 athletes to compete in 19 events but ended up with just one gold and ranking 52!

Perhaps here we may ask how Kenya with her 53 million people happen to outperform countries with far advanced economies or those with bigger populations like India with her 1.3 billion people! One reason has to do with management of their athletic programme, which is a source of great national pride. But also more, is focus. Other than extending herself in events where she has no history, like equestrian and rowing, Kenya has long concentrated on track and field. And even here she has narrowed more on to long distance, as opposed to shorter distance sprints long dominated by US and the amazingly swift Jamaicans.

Kenya knows that to win numbers is not everything! More so, the size of your bank account is not what makes you a winner. Rather, if out of many events you pick on a few where you are better at, concentrate and perfect on those, chances of success are far higher.

This lesson is equally important to businesses and any organizations. Many businesses and organizations at large underperform because of the weakness of over extending. They seek to be everything to everyone only to end up as “jack of everything but master of none!”

The next time you are developing your business or organization strategy, learn from the winners. Examine your strengths and choose to specialize in a few areas where you can focus your strengths than over extending yourself!

Why some change initiatives fail

Upon moving to a new rural-based parish, Rev Mukasa noticed that church attendance was sparse compared to his old posting in the urban center. There the church was bursting with numbers as young people were actively involved. In fact, sometimes they even led services. But here, the church doors only opened to a much older congregation that was limited in numbers. Rev Mukasa sensed trouble, especially as within the first month of his arrival he had to preside over two funerals from that age group.

“Where are the young people?” he asked the Assistant Vicar, alarmed.

“They say church is not exciting for them,” revealed the Assistant Vicar. “This is unlike the old people who feel very comfortable.”

“Then we need to find a way to start attracting young people to church,” Rev Mukasa brightened, with an idea. “Back in the city we were faced with similar problem. However, what we did was to introduce the things that young people are interested in. We started services where guitars and drums were playing instead of the traditional organ. We dropped hymns for quick praise songs which the youth were more pleased with. Sometimes I led services in casuals and jeans!”

“What!” the Assistant Vicar exclaimed. “If you attempt any of that here the old folks would throw you out.”

Assured of his plan and good intentions, Rev Mukasa, quickly moved to implement a programme of change. The following week he directed the church choir to do away with old hymns in favor of new songs of praise played to guitar and drums. He started leading services dressed in jeans and sneakers. He went to a nearby high school and brought over a crowd of young people, whom he asked to lead the service.

At first, the old people who formed the core of the church leadership structure ignored the changes. But when they started seeing their role declining, opposition broke out. “This new priest wants young people to take over our church,” complained the chair of elder Board who hadn’t been consulted. “I now see young poorly dressed kids taking up collection basket and they can’t be trusted.”

“For me I don’t think these new songs are spiritual enough!” added an old choir member. “Some of these guitar sounds remind me of bars. We can’t play devil music in the house of God.”

Soon there was uproar in the church. The Chair of the Elder Board called for a meeting. Rev Mukasa was tasked to explain why all these new changes. “The church is now losing its old members who don’t know what is going on,” he queried. “And these young people I don’t see them contributing any meaningful funds to run the church.”

Rev Mukasa tried to explain that the changes were for the good of the church, mentioning that it was because “the church was dying and needed new oil!”

“Who told you we were dying!” the older members rose up in protest. After the meeting, they reported him to the Bishop. On realizing church funds were dwindling because the older members were opposed to the new priest, he decided to recall him back to the city.

Perhaps you are wondering why Rev Mukasa failed to transform this church into a modern lively one with its pews filled. The first thing you may note here is that he moved too first, and moreover without sharing his vision to the old guard, who still held the levers of power. When managers want change it is important for them not to just explain their vision, but also win the support of the important stakeholders first. Plunging into an immediate crush programme of change is bound to provoke opposition, especially from those who fill threatened at the loss of power. The best of change initiatives are bound to be opposed but if they have the support of key stakeholders the likelihood of success rises.

The Power of Networks

“Why not take the children to any of the old traditional schools!” my mother expressed concern, once she heard I had different ideas. I did not commit but offered I would think about it. As my kids reached school going age, I started thinking of a school which had children not just from Uganda, but from all over the world, a sort of global village. But this was not something easy to explain to my mother who considered Catholic boarding schools as the ultimate choice. A longtime ago at an early age my folks had gathered me through a number of parochial schools, where morning chapel was compulsory and the stick was amply used to wire us into super pupils with astonishing grades. Well, I had since outgrown all that, and looked at life with a wider span.

Upon graduation with a Masters degree in one leading US state university, I started going around looking for a job. I happened to be attending a church with a number of influential people: state representatives in the Senate, leading business personalities, attorneys, physicians, academicians and senior managers. So, I approached one old gentleman who ran a successful financial firm. Immediately, he took up my case. “I see you have just graduated from my university,” he smiled, warmly. He called up a number of his old mates, and I could hear him chuckle, “I have a chap here just graduated from our old school!”

Easily, I found that in this state, one ticket a person needed was the university you attended. They were two prominent universities famous as rivals, particularly when it came to basketball and football games. Both boasted of a roaring passionate alumni who would buy yearlong tickets for any of those games. But that passion extended beyond university campus gates. Graduates shared a camaraderie, like kindred souls. Their cars and trucks bore mascots of their old schools. And, in fact, there was almost an immediate obligation to help out an old schoolmate, once one chanced upon any.

This was my first real experience how the school you go to matters. Here, in this state, it was not just the degree certificate that mattered, which of course counted, but also what school you went to. It was like once you came out then you were brothers ( or sisters). Yes, it has been years since I left that university and state, but tell you what even as of now whenever I bump into someone who went there and we discover a common origin, our eyes light up. “So, you too, are a Sooners!”

Once, in one of my graduate classes, a professor of public administration introduced to our class a book authored by Thomas R Dye, “Who is Running America?” I still have it on the shelf even after moving through different addresses. Once in a while I thumb through its pages. Why I found it so intriguing, to this day, was its central argument that power in the world’s most powerful nation was concentrated in a network of individuals who all but went to particular Ivy League schools. Yes, it looked like they all took out of their universities more than a conventional degree. Out of school they also came with friends who would go on to support each other through life, including ascending to the most important office in the world. How else do you start explaining how a son of an African student gets into White House? Well, among others, he happened to have gone to Harvard university!

Years ago I called up a retired Permanent Secretary, F D Gureme, who in his sunset years had taken to scribbling a popular column, “Old Man of the Town” He had just written something about his classmate while at King’s College Budo, Professor Senteza- Kajubi, the former Vice Chancellor of Makerere and Nkumba universities. He was a bit lonely as in his “Trojan –class” which had included a former Prime Minister, Eng Abraham Waligo, he was apparently the only one now living. “There was a time when we used to run this country,” he mused. “Everywhere you went you found an old schoolmate running the office. You could get any door open for you!”

I think schools give us more than certificates or degrees. They also gift us with friendship that open doors, once out of school gates. There was once a case in which I happen to be involved that made this so obvious to me. I had been hired as a Consultant to help one organization locate a CEO. We failed to find the right fit through normal processes. So I was tasked with head hunting. Now, one day, soon after, almost out of nowhere I came across an old boy, who just happened to be looking for his next post. Immediately I connected him to the Board. All I remember was unanimous assent. “After all he is from our school.”

So you can see why I didn’t know how to explain to my mother that my children were going to live in a globalized world, and if they could pick up friends from different nationalities, sooner but not later, it was all the better for them. In her world it was still grades that counted after faith. In my case I thought it was friends you made that counted more. Of course they could pick them from any of the old schools, as I had, but I thought theirs was going to be a less localized world than mine.

Well, in Uganda, national exams have just returned and I see a lot of anxiety about grades. Not much talk about networks the kids have built in their school journey and must continue. What I know and want to share a person can have a powerful degree with stars, but if they do not know someone to pass it along to the right decision maker, it might well end up with just a lot of dust. It is one of those things you get to know how the world works, along the way.

The day the tables turned!

“What has he come to do here?” Mr Mulimu asked his Secretary, on hearing that Mr Yaliwo, the former Managing Director (MD) of Bulya Cooperative Bank (BCB), was out waiting in the lobby. In the early 1990s, BCB, as part of agreement with IMF/ World Bank, had put been put up for restructuring. This was all to help stalled African economies revive by lending them money on certain conditions. BCB was one of many state enterprise consequently restructured which had led to Mr Yaliwo being laid off. Mr Mulimu, then a middle level manager, was one of the few survivors of a skeletal staff left behind. He was promoted as the new MD.

Soon after he received his terminal benefits, Mr Yaliwo, quickly noticed an error. He recalled back in the early 1970s shortly after joining BCB he was notified by the Head of personnel that 10% of his pay would be deducted automatically to contribute to a pension scheme based in the UK.  BCB would also add 5%; which made considerable savings for his retirement. However, in the mid-seventies, with the economy in doldrums, the bank started defaulting to remit money to the pension fund. Yet, in spite of that, the BCB continued to deduct staff pay and the money was used to cover operational expenses.

Once he got his pay slip, seeing the gap, Mr Yaliwo, immediately raised the matter with the new MD. “Some of us used to contribute to a UK pension based pension scheme yet you have not remitted us those funds,” he called on Mr Mulimu. “I know we kept deducting that money, as I was then a junior officer in the Accounts section.”

“That can’t be true!” Mr Mulimu did not take kindly to this claim. Soon after he had became MD he took quick offense if any person wanted to draw money from BCB accounts, which he almost viewed as personal. Not only would he have requisition papers sit for weeks, if not months, in his in-baskets, waiting for clearance, he would always find a way to reject claims, which often he claimed were fictitious.

Suppliers were habitually sent back empty handed, him accusing them of falsified delivery. Sometimes he watched them from his window apparently enjoying making them walk off BCB campus disgruntled. On occasion, upon receiving staff conference attending lists for workshops, asking for reimbursements, he would personally visit hotels, up country, to ascertain if the event took place. One day upon finding one workshop had not taken place, his vigilance rose to another pitch. Every claim that came to his desk had now to be routinely sent back for more proofs. “I need to see the photographs as proof of the workshop!”

Eventually, some staff decided to baptize him the nick name “Aswan Dam.” But on learning so, he took pride. “Yes, I am the dam against all those thieves hiding and wanting to steal money for no work.”

Not everyone was convinced though about Mr Mulimu’s motives. On one hand while he was slow and reluctant to entertain colleague request for advances, whenever he himself needed money, it would take just a few hours to force the whole Accounts machinery to release money to cater for his expenses. He would harass Accounts Assistants with repeated calls bordering on threats, noting the emergency of the matter, while easily shunning off any required proof, as not necessary. “This is urgent BCB business for the MD and please don’t frustrate company work or you will get yourself in trouble.”

So, when the former MD came back claiming that BCB still owed him money, his battle instincts rose. “I need proof of all those deductions Mr Mulimu hastily went on with objection, shunning off his former colleague.  When Mr Yaliwo, who now lived up country, left and traveled back with his pay slips, which he had meticulously kept, still Mr Mulimu demurred. “We have no money and what we gave you is enough.”

“But if BCB lacks the money,” Mr Yaliwo advised, “then take it to Finance Ministry since she is the one overseeing you. The debt can be passed on to the government and besides I also left some money in some reserves.”

“I will look into that,” he promised. But he didn’t.

After tiring of traveling back and forth, and being made to wait till late to see the MD, Mr Yaliwo, finally decided to team up with other laid off workers, denied of their full terminal benefits too and file a case in the High Court. But once he got summons Mr Mulimu, shrieking with anger, took the case to an old law firm of BCB, led  by a grey haired Senior Counsel, Mr Magezi.

“We must fight off these spurious claims by thieves!” Mr Mulimu urged the old seasoned lawyer. However, upon going over the files from BCB, Mr Magezi advised BCB that hers was a poor case. “Pay these old staff of yours,” he called BCB. “After all they used to work for you and are responsible for the BCB you found.”

“We paid them already and enough!” Mr Mulimu cut off the old lawyer. He then started shopping around for a firm that would help BCB win the case against these “ungrateful thieves”. He found one but at a stiff price. However, when it lost the case, Mr Mulimu remained still unfazed. “There is no way I am going to see BCB give out free money to those people!” He declared and appealed. “I was given this job to protect BCB against thieves.”

And that is when tables turned.

As part of the restructuring exercise, Parliament had passed a law that Accounting Officers like Mr Mulimu could only serve two five year- nonrenewable terms. In the heat of all his battles with ex staff Mr Mulimu had forgotten that his tenure was of a limited duration. Seeing his end coming, he called for a special meeting of the Board to sit and extend his term. It was at a resort where as usual he forced Accounts to release a huge envelope for each Board member in record time.

Now, on the Board was a young Christian lawyer who noted that  the Board had no powers to override an Act of Parliament. “Members we need to be careful not to pass rulings in violation of the law!”  Observing that this was being noted in the minute, the rest of the members cowed and agreed, in spite of helping themselves to the envelope. Mr Mulimu’s contract was not extended.

Out of a job, Mr Mulimu, received his terminal benefit and quickly noticed all the money he had once remitted for the pension fund, was not passed on to him. Without wasting time, Mr Mulimu, got into his car, and drove fast to BCB.

At the entrance the old MD was shocked when security delayed allowing him to proceed inside BCB campus. “Do you have an appointment?” A new gruff security man asked him.

“How can you ask when I was the former MD here!” Mr Mulimu growled.

“Next time, it is better to first call!” Security warned him.

Once Accounts staff heard “Aswan Dam” was back to lodge a financial claim, they deliberately decided to make him taste some of his old medicine. “There is no need to talk to anyone here,” said an intern staff who was sent to talk to the former boss, as he stood waiting in the corridor. “Your matter is being handled and you would be informed in due time!”

Flushing with anger, Mr Milumu stormed back to his car. He could not understand why the organization he had in the past vehemently fought for, was now treating him so coldly. “People are so ungrateful!” he raged. He decided to call up the new MD called Mupya. “I have all this money owed to me,” he shared, heatedly.

“I will get back to you after making inquiries,” said Mupya, who had been hired from outside and knew little of her past operations.

When Mupya passed on the concerns of the former MD to the rest of Management he noticed they seemed all bemused. They took their time responding but finally gave him word for Mr Mulimu. “There is a court case on this matter under appeal and we need to wait for the outcome.”

It is at this point, that, Mr Mulimu decided to look up Mr Yaliwo. He desperately needed this cash payout as he was deep in debt and close to losing a commercial building he had mortgaged. Used to an extravagant life and realizing that he was now without a steady income, he had to find a quick way to make ends meet. “I think we should sit down and talk to see how to get our money back,” Mr Mulimu, lightly asked the man he had once seen as a nuisance. “I am now on your side.” He giggled, nervously.

“Is that so!” said Mr Yaliwo, quite surprised to hear from him, at last, as he had never called him before. It had been close to a decade when he had been made to suffer for lodging this very claim only to be resisted by the very man who was now at the end of the line. In the course of time, some of the old staff  he had started this struggle with had even passed on, while dying in poverty.

“Welcome to our side of the line,” Mr Yaliwo, finally told once his old tormentor. Having hung up, he sat, shaking his head.

Heroism in a time of an epidemic

In his mind Suubi always dreamt that after school, once he got a good job, married a beautiful girl, all would be well. The hard life he had endured while growing up would all come to an end.

Suubi had narrowly survived the harsh guerrilla war that brought the new military government in power. It had all come at such a huge personal cost. Suubi had lost both his parents, grannies and four siblings. Fate befell him when the family home was bombed after some neighbour alleged they had been sheltering guerrillas. Suubi had not been home at the time of attack, for he was down at the well, but when he got back he found once his home all leveled, with dismembered bodies, everywhere, of people he loved.

He fled. For days and nights, surviving on cassava he stole from gardens and drinking water from stagnant wells, he eluded government soldiers searching for rebels, as he made his way through the bush to the city. When he got to the city it was now a question who would take him up. He saw lots of kids milling around the streets and he considered starting life there too. But then he recalled he had an Uncle, Nkalyanzekka, a younger brother of his murdered Dad, who was a big shot in the city.

But he hesitated going there. Suubi knew that Uncle Nkalyanzekka had long cut himself from his family, which he despised. He had last seen him almost a decade ago when he came for a funeral of an aunt, in a big car, and quickly left once the funeral was over.

“That brother of mine is a very proud man,” Suubi had often heard his father complain. “He forgets he went to school only because we sacrificed and let all the school fees be used for him. But since he got up he thinks we are too small for him.”

That was part of the truth. Having got up in society Mr Nkalyanzekka had formed all sorts of negative views about the relatives he had left behind. He chided them for not being developmental like him. “Look,” he would hiss back in his palatial home of five bedrooms, “those people are so lazy. With all that land they still ask me money. All they do is drink and spend all their earnings in witchcraft chasing fantasies.”

So, how could he now go to Uncle Nkalyanzekka and ask for shelter when he had this low opinion of his family. But then he had no choice. Indeed, once he got to the house, tucked in a leafy suburb, before even greeting him, Uncle Nkalyanzekka on realizing who he was, cried through the window, “What has brought you here, boy, all rumpled up like this!”

“Everyone in the village was killed,” Suubi broke the sad news. Uncle Nkalyanzekka took in the news, without much of an expression. “Come in,” he finally allowed him in.” Suubi gingerly stepped on to the carpet.

“But I hear those people were supporting guerrillas,” his Uncle snapped, after taking in all the news. “So, what can I do for you!” He started pressing him.

“I need somewhere to stay,” Suubi pleaded.

“We have only a small place here,” the Uncle, who had two children, mostly away in a boarding school, wavered. It was only when his wife later showed up and hearing Suubi’s story of what had happened in the village urged her reluctant husband to take his nephew in. “He can also help us with chores, anyway.”

This is how Suubi had ended up being raised as a Shamba boy in his Uncle’s palatial home. He was housed in a boy’s quarter. Life was restless as the deal was to do odd jobs around the house as a way to earn money to pay for his school fees. Through hard work Suubi had finally made it to the university, and soon got a job in a government agency. Finally secure, he felt it was now time to live the life of his dreams, just like his pinchy Uncle.

But then he was in for a rude shock. Soon after leaving university Suubi saw one of his best friend die of a mysterious disease that had drained him into a poor skeletal frame. By then there were people dying all over, taken by a new strange disease. Finally someone gave it a name- Slim. After a lot of research, it was discovered, it was largely caused through sexual activity with an infected person. Young people like Suubi were urged to marry and stick to their partners, if they were ever to avoid it.

So, when Suubi married a girl called Mary, he knew his troubles were over. After all he had now a good job, a wife, a house and soon a car, all to himself. He would now be like Uncle Nkalyanzekka, a wealthy man living in the city, enjoying life to himself.

One of the things that had drawn Suubi to Mary was that she had grown up in a hard up family, far away from the village, much like his.  But Suubi and Mary had hardly settled in their new life of tranquility when in quick succession she lost four of her elder brothers to Slim. Her parents back in the village decided to send two of her remaining sisters, still in school, to her to raise. “With our grief, we can only manage to look after one child.”

Suubi’s first reaction was to send them back. “Why are your people coming here to enter our quiet life!” he wondered aloud. Mary did not answer. But later, as he reflected back on his life, Suubi recalled he had survived because someone had let him in, albeit reluctantly. Otherwise he would have ended up on the streets. Maybe by letting in these two girls, they too would survive, just as he had scrapped through the bush war, and go on to become something.

Those are the stories of Slim days. Although looked at as a very wicked period, and certainly it was, there is also a lot of good that came out of that dark period. In 1988 at its worst, a musician by the names of Phily Lutaaya, gave a feared disease a human face, by boldly presenting himself, and going a long way to reduce the stigma that had left many to suffer in morbid silence.

Earlier in 1987 after losing her husband to HIV/ AIDS, a young widow called Noreen Kaleeba, decided to turn  a tragedy into an opportunity, by linking up with others who had experienced as much fate, with a simple mission, to lift up each other and find a way  for life  to go on.  Eventually, from this band of widows, would grow one of the most respected global health organization called TASO, which has gone a long way to end this disease.

Times of tragedy can also birth the most heroic feats, as the days of HIV/AIDS revealed. On the other hand there are those who can become withdrawn and perhaps callous. Throughout history even in dark times, often in the midst of falling bodies, there are those who see this as their best opportunity to collect sacks of money they always longed for and build mountains of castles for their enjoyment. That’s how life goes.

But still,  there are those who choose to rise above the waters, forget about themselves, even if for a while, and become bigger, as we saw back then.

The Covid- 19 pandemic is no less, of times of upheaval seen through history. In spite of all the misery, it is a gift as well, to mankind, because it helps us draw back to find the very essence and meaning of life. At the end of it some will come out narrower in life; as other will have risen to become larger in life.

The Enigmatic Son of a Priest from a Split Uganda and Kenyan Family – Aggrey Awori ( 1939- 2021)

In the early 1998 I became the second host of Spectrum, the long running current affairs Radio 1 talk show. One of my regular guests to discuss the days events was a man I scarcely knew much about before called Aggrey Awori. But with his winsome smile and quick wit, any might strike a friendship with him. Once I also discovered we had passed through the same school, King’s College, Budo, we hit it off. Yes, of course, I did have other interesting guests. There was Winnie Banyima, later to head the global relief organization Oxfam, who had also passed through the same school at one point. Once I recall Winnie wanting to put questions in my mouth, leading us to draw into a stalemate. But that was never with Aggrey. He exuded  a certain gentle confidence, that long after the show came to an end, we carried on off air discussing Uganda, and generally life.

The late 1990s were an interesting time in the political development of Uganda. In 1995 Uganda had drawn up her third constitution (within a space of just 33 years) after a tense debate between Federalists who longed for a return to the 1962 constitution and the Centrists certainly sympathetic to the 1967 republican constitution. Aggrey had participated vigorously in the writing of that constitution, leaning with the Centrists, as a Constituent Assembly delegate. A few years back he had been plucked from exile by the Museveni government, eager to secure a mandate and lend credibility to its shaky regime that had overthrown the Obote 11 regime in 1986.

Aggrey had lost his job as Uganda’s ambassador to the US and later Belgium, following the National Resistance Movement (NRM) coup. Apparently angered he decided to form an outfit called Force Obote Back Again ( FOBA). It was mainly composed of  ragged youths he readily supplied AK47s directing them to attack and blow up government offices. This was around the time when  Eastern Uganda which had long proved as one of the most stable support of the UPC  government was spawning all sorts of rebel movements. Alice Lakwenya had started here in 1986 with her Holy Spirit movement before she was forced on the run. Her outfit however had given birth to the Lord’s Resistance Army ( LRA) under a one former Catholic Catechist called Joseph Kony who took his battle theater to Northern Uganda. In an attempt to end these wars, in 1993, after a reconciliatory meeting with President Museveni, in New York, Aggrey, decided put aside his guns and return to Uganda.  He then settled into a long career as an opposition politician.

In the debates we had on Spectrum and off air, sometimes later on the terrace of Speke Hotel, Aggrey was unapologetic in drawing the government of President Museveni to account. Once he shocked parliament by revealing that  the Presidential jet flew a daughter of President Museveni to give birth in Germany costing taxpayers $50,000. Another time he pointed out how Uganda was funding a US lobbyist at an astonishing fee of $300,000 for some fuzzy trade deal. He always came to the studio armed with lawyerly facts and I sensed government was on high alert based on calls that I fielded to refute his claims of alarming corruption in NRM. A formidable debater, I personally wasn’t much surprised when  he was voted the best legislator of the sixth parliament, and possibly ever in Uganda.

Yet, what is interesting here, and of our politics, is that when he stood to be reelected in subsequent elections he lost his Samia- Bugwe North seat to a relatively unknown novice. While on the national scene Aggrey was exposing high level corruption, on the ground, back home, he was losing out. The days of able debaters in Uganda’s political evolution were quickly coming to a close, soon to give way to a crowd of comedians taking center stage.

Perhaps I am being rather harsh to point out that Aggrey enjoyed being in the limelight. For me it did not come as a surprise when out of seeming political oblivion he decided to bounce back and take on President Museveni during the 2001 elections. It was pure comedy as Aggrey kept boasting of his connections with world leaders and distinguished East African family roots. To prove his financial muscle he ordered a helicopter; but which only arrived in the wee hours of the election. He lost, rather ignominiously, polling less than 2%.

By then I had lost touch with him, though I kept following his politics. Sometime later I read he had crossed from his UPC party to join the party still led by the man whose policies he used to habitually question during our radio programmes and off air. Later in 2009 he was appointed by President Museveni as ICT Minister, which I thought was a reward for his crossing over to the ruling party. But in 2011, the Museveni government having exhausted all his usefulness, no longer of much threat, casually dropped him, sending what was once the most feared opposition politician into political limbo.

I must here pause and question if Aggrey’s crossing to NRM from his traditional UPC, was a sign of political maturity or an unprincipled move by a humbled politician eager to stay in the limelight? There are many other UPC politicians, like his classmate at Budo, Peter Otai, once State Minister of Defence in Obote 11 regime, who never warmed up to President Museveni’s famous advances to the very end. Although ideologically, Aggrey was closer to NRM, which was anyway a breakaway splinter movement from UPC, by the time he made peace with it, the party had long meandered from many of its earlier nationalistic pretenses.  For example, in 2006 it had abandoned the two- term presidential limit at the core of the 1995 constitution. By then there were cries accusing NRM of sectarianism, especially in favor of the Western region.

So, how could he join NRM then? This is why to me Aggrey comes off across as an enigma.

Perhaps to get a better understanding of this rather complicated man we need to start with his roots. Aggrey was a sixth child of an Anglican pioneer priest, Canon Jeremiah Musungu Awori and his wife Maria, a nurse and community. This Basamia family strode along the Kenya and Uganda border, two nations arbitrary created by the British. The Aworis were an amazing couple who would raise over 16 children. But because of their settlement along the border lines, part of the family was cut off on the Uganda side. It is said Aggrey grew up with an elder sister over in Uganda and after attending Nabumali High School he joined Budo where he starred as an athlete. At one point there was interest by the British who took notice of his athletic prowess to take him to Sandhurst Military Academy. But Canon Musungu, who ensured all his children get a good education, dissuaded his son.

Instead Aggrey secured a scholarship to Harvard University where he initially enrolled to study nuclear physics but later switched to political economy. After doing post graduate work at Syracuse University in journalism, he returned to Uganda and was shortly thereafter appointed a Director of Uganda Television (UTV).

There are some unverified reports that he had long been enrolled into General Service Unit (GSU) as an intelligence officer by its head, Obote’s cousin, Akena Odoko. In any case accounts from that period do indicate that he was a partisan Director very committed to UPC  Centrist ideology. Reports I never verified with him mentioned that he was very belligerent towards those for a federal arrangement, particularly the Baganda, who had been sidelined after Obotes’s 1966 coup, forcing a number into political exile.

According to some, why Aggrey was placed at UTV was to use his office and spy on journalists. Indeed, from what he would later share, Aggrey had an advance tip of the 1971 Amin coup. He made frantic efforts to alert President Obote but to no avail. Once in power Amin detained him. He might have been killed, like later his Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Alex Ojera. But Aggrey had army contacts and through the intervention of Col Nyagweso, he was freed. He quickly escaped to Kenya.

Aggrey had married a Liberian national, Thelma. The two had met as students at Harvard and had a young family.  At that point in life, he could have renounced his Ugandan citizenship and taken on Kenyan citizenship,  joining the majority of the Awori siblings. In Kenya the Aworis had proved to be high achievers, becoming firsts, in many different specialties. For example, there was Professor Nelson Awori, who was the first Kenyan to carry out a kidney transplant. Engineer Hannigton Awori had established himself on the board of many blue chip companies. And then there was an upcoming politician called Moody, years later to emerge as Kenya’s Vice President.

Aggrey would not renounce his Ugandan citizenship, though, in favor of Kenya, whose independence fortunes were strikingly far much rosier than Uganda. It is possible that he might have had regrets especially as he saw Uganda, the country he had adopted, descend into a bloody orgy with hundreds of thousands of Ugandans, pouring into Kenya where authorities would hound them. Simply he took up a job as a lecturer at Nairobi University.  In 1979 he was one of the “Moshi revolutionaries” who joined hands leading to the overthrow of Amin regime. After President Binaisa took over he joined his government to serve as one of his Assistants. In 1980 he stood for Parliament under UPC party ticket but lost. He was then posted to the US as Uganda’s envoy.

Last year, early one morning while going through the papers, I noticed that after the 9th parliament had decided to further increase the size of Uganda’s already oversized parliament to 524 members, with also elderly MPs, which was causing heated debates in some of my circles, Aggrey was offering himself to stand as one of the elderly candidates representing Eastern Uganda. In the past I could recall he would have been the first person to question the soundness of such a decision for a strained economy like ours, unable to pay doctors a motivated wage. But now he was part of the whole gravy train. For some reason, I could no longer recognize, the man I once knew.

Ambassador Aggrey Awori’s life was heroic but also one which leaves some of those who knew him bewildered. At Harvard University he smashed records, becoming the first person in heptagonal track history to win concurrently three events, setting records that stood for years. He was a man destined for greatness, and there is no doubt he towered over his generation in many ways. But in deciding to join a party which for long he despised,  at its very low moment, one can only give him the benefit of doubt. Rest in peace, Aggrey!

The writer is Associate Professor of Management, Uganda Christian University, Mukono.

Lessons on Successful Leadership Transfer

Rotary is a worldwide movement that brings together professionals to serve their community. It is a tradition in Rotary that every year a new crop of Presidents are nominated to take over the mantle of leading their clubs. Having served as President of Rotary Club Kampala West, last month of June, I dutifully handed over to a new President.

Aware that the subject of leadership transfer probably needs more discussion than has been given attention, I invited Rev Canon Dr. John Senyonyi, who in September 2020, after serving a mandatory 10 years as Vice-Chancellor of Uganda Christian University, handed over to a new CEO.

The first challenge Dr Senyonyi observed, might have to do with completing a leader’s legacy. Almost all leaders have particular aspirations they have purposed to realize. The years at the helm run fast and before long one’s term is over. For many leaders, there is a certain anxiety about not having finished the business of their term.

This fear is not willful imagination. Dr. Senyonyi shared an experience of once traveling through Nigeria where he came across a suspended bridge dwarfing over one important city. It so happened that the project had been started with one Governor of a leading state. When a new came to office, he decided to discontinue funding of any past projects of his predecessor. The new Governor wanted to build his own towers, without giving his successor any room to shine.

One way to address this problem is by building systems that are larger than one leader. A new leader who comes into office should only feed into a system, with his new set of aspirations, other than seeing his mandate as breaking up anything that was related to his predecessor.

In most of those organizations where we have seen successful leadership transfer, there is often a clear pipeline of leaders, being groomed for the job at the helm once it fell vacant. In the Rotary organization normally one would expect any club to plan for its President possibly three years ahead by taking them through various club positions. This helps expose the potential President to how the organization works, such that by the time one succeeds into office, there is little fear of disruption.

When leaders depart office the relation between the new leader and his predecessor needs as well to be managed. Some new leaders wanting to quickly establish their purpose not to have anything to do with their predecessors. Yet, this is a disservice to themselves and the organization as they miss out on good counsel, garnered after years of experience by their predecessors.

However, there are also those leaders who apparently never leave, and are up and about, quick to show their influence, not allowing the new leader to properly establish themselves. This is ill-advised for it can result in a conflict of allegiances, with the old leader continuing to hold more influence, and not giving the new leader a chance to properly build a new team.

Sometimes the community complicates leadership transfer when it fails to recognize a past leader just out of office. Used to being chauffeured and greeted by their ceremonial titles, past leaders are shocked when the day after they leave office, none seems to care much for them anymore. It can be a catastrophic experience especially for someone who for a decade everyone was fighting to gain favor from, only to be abandoned. Leaders must prepare for this reality, though also as a community we deserve to treat past leaders respectfully, giving them their deserved dues, if only to encourage their successors not to demur once their time is up.

The country where things never change!

Something puzzling caught the attention of the young doctor. After observing carefully he noticed a sudden rise in number of patients, dying from a condition all the books he had read back in medical school did not properly describe. Once bright and up on their feet, stricken patients soon after admission would wither away slowly into skeletal frames, of much pity, before drawing their last breath. The young doctor applied all kinds of standard treatment to bring relief and recovery but to no avail.

Finally, he approached the head of his department, Professor Nkumbi. “I am puzzled,” he sighed. “We are losing so many people and none of the standard treatment is working. I suspect we are faced with a new dangerous disease.”

Professor Nkumbi had also been noticing through his regular rounds of supervision and his concern was growing. Over the years he had seen batches of new viruses break out to cause new strange diseases. But even with scarce knowledge there seemed always a way out to manage any. Many times he would use his vast experience to apply a combination of different medicine and administer their properties in different amounts to help heal the sick.

The Professor was a lazy writer but on occasion once certain of his treatment he would author a paper packed with statistics which he had assiduously gathered as proof of the efficacy of his treatment regime. His findings were reviewed and published in leading medical journals. It is only after the scientific community had reached consensus that he would accept invitation locally and globally to promote his medicine. The Professor was now recognized as an expert in managing tropical diseases and some of his medicines had been patented by leading pharmacies.

“Perhaps we should get out blood samples and anything we consider useful to a partner laboratory in the US,” Professor Nkumbi advised the young doctor. The two agreed, and quickly sent samples out by DHL. However, after a week anxious for feedback, came a terse reply. “There is nothing we found giving us clue to this new disease.”

“If they can’t figure it out,” said the Professor. “Then we need to figure it by ourselves. They have their problems and we have ours. Sometimes we need to take the lead.”

In his long career of handling epidemic crises Professor Nkumbi had taken an interest in studying human behavior under odd circumstances. Although at an individual level there were observable differences, there were also commonalities. First, human beings in the absence of assured treatment, many started panicking. This would be accentuated as the diseases became viral. In this case, Professor Nkumbi saw it happen when sometime later, the young doctor who had taken it upon himself to immerse himself in treating the afflicted, fell ill. Then, as were others, he wilted away, and in no time lost his life.

The death of the young doctor made all the health workers pause. Putting in long hours, working under strained circumstances with poor equipment, tempers rose. “No one knows what this disease is,” said a young worried medic. “This disease will wipe us away before anybody knows.”

The Professor knew that one of the first things he needed in the midst of an epidemic was to bring reassurance and calmness. The day after the young doctor was buried he called on all staff for a meeting. “I know many of you are scared stiff and for good reasons,” he said to the hushed room. “But I want to assure you that if we stay calm and work together on this thing we shall find a cure. Let us keep our hands joined together otherwise if we left fear take over us, we shall all lose out. I say, the only thing to fear is fear itself!”

“But how can we work under these conditions,” a staff raised concern. “We are short on beds and gloves. Patients are sleeping on floors. Our pay comes in late. We are hungry. Don’t sell us on this hope stuff.”

“I do hear you,” the Professor said calmly. “How I wish I was the one managing the health sector. But for now our complaints won’t help much. We are at the frontline. Everyone is looking up to us. Let us do all we can!”

The next day about a third of the health care workers did not show up. Professor Nkumbi had seen it all. But he knew a certain critical staff would stick on. It is those few he embarked on a journey of finding a discovery to this unknown disease.

The Professor decided to close off one of his wards where he would carry out rigorous research. As he studied the disease he noticed that a majority of patients fell in the 15- 25 age bracket. He would ask them all sorts of questions about their lifestyle. Yet he couldn’t figure out why this new disease was more virulent in attacking this rather athletic age group. He wrote to the Ministry of Health asking for funds to research more on this age group but he was quickly rebuffed. “Maybe you should write to the donors,” the Permanent Secretary wrote back. “The funds available are for buying cars for political leaders to sensitize the population about His Excellency programs.”

In the meantime, without much research going on, all sorts of speculation started going around town, explaining this disease. There were those who quickly pointed the finger to witchcraft. “This thing was brought by those witch doctors from our neighbors,” seemed to be the chorus in local pubs. As many were convinced, they rushed to local shrines to fight off evil spirits causing this unknown disease. There, almost all would not survive, including some of the shrine ministers, which left as many perturbed.

“God is punishing us for our sins,” a number of Pastors claiming to be in constant contact with God now took center stage. “If you come here and we pray for you then you will be healed.” Added to this, there were those who claimed that racist White doctors had planted the disease in Africa to wipe out the population and recolonize the continent! Promoters of this conspiracy were drawn largely from the more educated class.

All this Professor Nkumbi had seen. “Human beings will always grapple for answers from all sorts of angles in the face of the unknown,” he had once written a paper. “In situations of anxiety, it is expected for opportunistic groups to thrive.”

As all was going on, one-day Professor Nkumbi discovered that a young man on his research team had pieced some of his data to put together a concoction claiming it as a cure for the new disease. This medicine was marketed across the country, especially at bus stops and popular drinking joints, where a number would always come up with testimonies of “being cured” by gulping it. No one would take time to probe their testimonies. Marketed intensely, the new “cure” soon ran out of stock. When Professor Nkumbi learned that the chap behind all was on his research team, he promptly fired him. “I have nothing to do with anyone who takes advantage of poor people’s ignorance promoting unproved gimmicks.”

Poorly funded, Professor Nkumbi pressed on with the few staff left on his team. After many months of gathering evidence, his data started coming together. He discovered the young people who were most affected tended to exhibit an aggressive sexual lifestyle. He found that in the absence infection rates tended to be minimal. With this in mind, the Professor now realized that lifestyle change was one line of attack to reduce infection. He started advocating sexual abstinence as one line of attack. He also found that by using condoms where one’s status was unknown, infections fell to almost zero. He became a serious advocate of condom use.

Not everyone was pleased with the Professor’s findings. For those who were marketing “cure” concoctions, using some of their profits, they started waging a campaign against the Professor. “This man shall put us out of business,” they seethed. Meanwhile, certain government officials displeased that reports of lower infection rates meant the country was earmarked for less aid, also started attacking the Professor. They knew less aid would mean less funds to maintain their expensive lifestyle which they dared not forsake, even in the midst of a ravaging epidemic…

It is now nearly four decades away since Uganda was at the center of the devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic, whose origins was initially a cause of so much speculation. However, after the rigorous work of dedicated research scientists in Uganda, it was discovered there was a link between the spread of the HIV-causing virus and unprotected sexual activity. Armed with this knowledge the doctors then started advocating abstinence, faithfulness and condom (ABC) use as a line of defense.

But as we all know the simple message of lifestyle behavioral changes, was not good news to everyone. All sorts of power centers rose up attacking ABC, without much else to show, but the power of charged emotions.

And so it is with Covid-19. A lot about managing this virus has simply to do with limiting its spread by observing simple behavioral practices – physical distancing, sanitization, mask-wearing, isolation of the sick, etc. More so, there are various tested vaccines fortunately now available which serious governments have quickly and without waste bought and ensured the majority of the population take immediate benefit of. Never mind all that. There are those places where things just never change.

Curtain gently draws on one of Uganda’s most illustrous houses: Dr. John Nsibambi (1930- 2021)

On 24th May, 1966, Prime Minister Milton Obote having already arrested five of his rebellious cabinet ministers who had sided with those moving a vote of no confidence in his government, prompting the Buganda Lukiko ( parliament) in retaliation to issue an ultimatum for him to vacate his government from Buganda, his forces, led by a one Idi Amin attacked. They run up to the Mengo palace where President Mutesa, also the Baganda King, calmly, lay waiting. A trained military officer, Mutesa and Idi Amin’s forces wasted no time in engaging fire after fire for the next 12 hours.

Among average Baganda an attack on the Kabaka is personal. Once they heard the thunder of bombs and staccato of shots fired at the palace, thousands rushed out to defend their Kabaka. They were poorly armed though and the superior forces of Amin easily overpowered them. Losing edge, Mutesa who was determined not to surrender like his grandfather, Kabaka Mwanga 11, who had been taken captive by the British aided by their collaborators, against overwhelming fire, scaled up a high palace wall. He fell down with a thud, and in pain. But with his back hurting, holding on to a rifle, he disappeared.

Mutesa’s nemesis, Obote, wanted him dead or alive. At Mutesa’s heels, accompanying him, was one of his most loyal men, Augustine Musoke. Musoke suggested they take cover in the trusted home of his sister, Eva Nsibambi. Mutesa knew she was the wife of a religious man, Simeone, described to some as “Omulokole”! And there they went.

A son in that home has left us an account of what happened. Once he arrived, panting, “my parents prayed for him,” later wrote Apolo, “and gave him lunch. Later on, some people whom we greatly suspected to be Obote’s spies visited our home.” But the Nsibambi artfully lured them away. “It was decided we take the Kabaka to Canon Kigozi’s home across the road,” Apolo adds. This was none other than Peter Kigozi who in 1941 had caused great controversy throughout Buganda when he consented to marry the Namasole ( Queen Mother), the deceased wife of Sssekabaka Chwa, something considered by many as a taboo. But Kigozi had now become a Mulokole ( Born Again Christian) and was under the discipleship of Simeone Nsibambi. From there Mutesa would walk down to Burundi, and make his escape to Britain.

Who was this Simeone Nsibambi? Born in 1897, to Sezi Walusimbi Kimanje, a Saza chief, he started his education at Mengo school. But when World War 1 broke out in 1914 he went to war and served in the African Native medical corps. For his service he was promoted as a sergeant. The war over Simeone joined King’s College Budo, to continue with his education. At Budo his teachers quickly recognized him for his leadership qualities and made him Head Prefect.

After he left school he joined the Buganda government as a Chief Health officer. It is said that following a disappointment of being turned down for an overseas scholarship Simeone committed his life to Jesus. In the late 1920s, after a deep and personal religious experience, he teamed up with a British missionary, Joe Church, who was based in Rwanda where a movement calling on the Anglican church members to repent and embrace salvation had started. The pair now stormed the church, considered cold, with a revival message of “repent and get saved”!

This was the birth of obulokole ( Born Again) movement in Uganda. Their revival message soon fanned across the borders, extending to the rest East Africa and eventually all over the world. In Uganda it was headquartered in the home of Simeone and Eva. Back on August 25 1925, Simeone had married Eva Bakalubo, the eldest daughter of Elasto Bakaluba, a magistrate in the Buganda government.

Eva and Simeone’s first child was a girl born on July 5th 1926, whom they baptized as Janet Nakku. She was followed by a boy they baptized Phillip. Then came John.

Those who knew something of Simeone’s leadership capacities could imagine him ending up as a Kattikro, ( Buganda Prime Minister). However, once he committed his life to Christ, he gave up his government career, even after being offered to become a Deputy County Chief. He was now a fulltime preacher. But as an educated Christian he knew the value of being schooled. In 1938, his third born, was sent to his alma mater, King’s College Budo where he would remain up to 1949.

Among those in John’s class year were two brilliant boys going by the names of Mayanja. One was Mayanja Nkangi, later to become Buganda’s Prime Minister and a Central government minister. There other was Abu Mayanja, later to become a founding father of the nationalist movement in Uganda, Buganda government minister and once Prime Minister of Uganda.

John carried some of his father’s leadership qualities and, at Budo, was appointed a Prefect. When the eighth born child of Eve and Simeone, joined the school, called Apolo, everyone could notice a lot of his father in him. He was highly organized, a strict time keeper, and very forthright. Like his father he was appointed Head prefect.

John left Budo to study medicine at the London University, which had an extension at Makerere University. After graduating as one of the early African medical doctors in East Africa, following his specialist studies in UK, he returned and joined Mulago hospital. These early African Mulago doctors were highly exceptional individuals who all excelled in their specialties. For example, to cite a few, there was Jovan Kiryabwire, who had studied in Britain to return home and become the first African neurosurgeon in East and Central Africa. There was Sebasatian Kyalwaazi, who would became the first African surgeon in the region too. For John he was a dermatologist, certainly one of the first in the region, just as well.

A young doctor fresh from Britain was easily an eligible bachelor. Unlike some of his brothers, like Ezekiel Kimanje the fifth born who had become a famous journalist, or the vivacious Pilkington Sengendo, ninth born, who became a professor of art, John was much quieter. According to a story told to me by my Aunt, Lillian Binaisa Mukwaya, after noticing he was single and seeking, “I decided to connect John to Solome!”

Solome Nabulya was the beautiful daughter of Taata muto (Uncle) Bulasio Mukasa Kavuma, a leading Buganda government official, Omuwanika ( Chief of the Treasury). A little while back Solome had returned from her studies in Britain. She had something in common with John. She was a nurse. The arrangement hit off. In 1961, John and Solome, were joined hands in marriage at Namirembe, their parents on both side witnessing the event.

The couple were soon blessed with three children: daughters Rose Nanteza and Gertrude Zawedde; and a son, who was named after his grandfather, Simeone. In the 1970s following the breakdown of Uganda’s medical infrastructure the family was forced out into exile. They moved to Kenya and Ethiopia but their heart was ever in Uganda. After the fall of Amin, in the 1980s, John returned home, with the family, but this time decided to set up a private clinic, that specialized in skin care.

Osler Clinic, based at Namirembe, became renowned for treating skin disease. Many children taken there suffering from seemingly incurable ailments, like eczima, where amazed, at how through Dr Nsibambi’s skillful hands the pain of their skin was relieved. He normally sat behind a desk and calmly kept receiving patients through the day. In an adjacent room sat Solome, eager to assist. The two were inseparable.

Early one morning in 2018 Solome, called me with the sad news that Zawedde had passed on while in UK. In the evening I went to attend prayers in the very home where Simeone and Eve had once sheltered Kabaka Mutesa. At that meeting the brethren gathered could not help but express some of their joy at a rather difficult moment. In attendance was also Apolo, who after a long exciting academic career culminating as a Professor of political science, had just retired as Prime Minister of Uganda, and lived across the road.

“John and Solome we are all grieved at the death of your beloved daughter,” Zebuloni Kabazi the leader of the fellowship said. “But there is something I want to say here.” Although he had as a little boy confessed salvation in Christ, somewhere, John had backslid. Apolo, too, who had also confessed salvation in Christ, as a little boy, somewhere, had also backslid. But then over time John had recommitted his life to Christ. A few years back Apolo had returned to the fold. “For a long time the Balokole fellowship used to pray for both of you John and Apolo to know Jesus personally as Lord and Savior. We could not imagine that the fellowship your father founded could be true to itself without you being there. In fact our hearts were always heavy without seeing any of you. Always we had seats reserved for you. But we are now gratified that you the heir of Simeone and the former Prime Minister of Uganda are all members of the Balokole. How we praise God!”

The service broke into the old revival song, “Tukutendereza Yesu!”

Although devastated by the loss of their daughter, John and Solome, now in their eighties continued to work side by side, at their Osler Clinic. But early one morning of 3rd December, 2019, Solome awoke feeling chest pains. John rushed her to Nsambya hospital and she was admitted. But then, suddenly, she passed on.

At Solome’s funeral service at Namirembe, John, shaken, wondered aloud, how he was going to cope without his wife of 58 years. He lost the energy to continue on with his clinic and, at 89, the calm skin doctor who was still in high demand closed shop, and quietly retired to his home in Bulange. With his son Simeone far away in the US, Rose, who was based in UK, decided to relocate, to attend to her ailing father. His health weak, in September, 2020, John received a blow when his eldest sister Janet, passed on in the US, where she had since relocated to be near her son, the famous musician Samite Mulondo.

Out of the 12 children of Eve and Simeone, John was now the only one living.

On Saturday, June 26th, 2021, at about 3 pm, John, slipped way, in the very house where Simeone and Eve would once gladly receive the brethren from all over Uganda and the world to strengthen them in their faith journey. It was an end of a great chapter. And knowing the faith of all those who passed through that house, who had gone ahead, there is no doubt there are all now singing praise, “Tukudereze Yesu!”

The man we called quick feet: Simon Bugaba (1962 – 2021)

Early this year I received a whatsap message from a man known to many as Eng Bugaba of Uganda Communications Commision ( UCC). But for his classmates he was known as Quick feet. Our King’s College Budo class year (1977-83) had in appreciation of the education we received there long decided to sponsor at least one needy student every year. The man spearheading this class project was none other than Simon.

“Just contacted the Deputy,” he wrote. “He says he will give us a shortlist next week.” In the midst of a busy schedule as a top official at UCC, Simon had gone at great lengths to gather details of needy students at Budo.

A four person select committee he headed had decided that our next sponsor should this time be a girl. Simon came up with four names. When we met on April 7th, 2021 he had already done investigative work breaking down the students home environment, performance and needs. It did not take us long to agree on one girl. Once we presented her to the rest of classmates, there was immediate agreement to support her.

Job well done. That is why we called Simon, Quick feet.

I first met Smon in 1981 as a new A’level student (njuka) at Budo. Perhaps because of his soft spoken nature, and unassuming ways, he didn’t make a fast impression on me. For him he had joined Budo in 1977 coming from up country Primary schools- based at Sempa, Bulindo, Bamusuuta and one in Kiboga. Having excelled and being needy he was admitted on a Bursary scholarship, something he would never forget.

Besides enjoying his academics, Simon took on a past game at Budo, cricket, where he tortured opponents as a wicked batsman. Volleyball was another of his passion and he loved spurring on the opposite side of the net with his classmate, now Dr George Mutema. However, another even more consuming interest was that Simon was a very committed Christian.

In his first year at Budo, together with his house mate, Tim Sentongo, and Isaac Kronde, during one “contact” fellowship the trio committed their life to Jesus Christ as Lord and personal savior. “One of our earliest joint encounters was when Douglas Kisaka was heading Contact choir in 1977,” remised Isaac, years later. “Simon and I tried to join but were turned down..”

The young enthusiastic converts were not deterred. Simon, together with Tim and Isaac studied closely together, and returned for A’level, with him taking on the demanding PCM combination. On meeting him in Canada House, spite of my then indifference to his faith, we developed a healthy respect for each other, largely due to his genial character. Indeed, when in our final year he was appointed House prefect there was unanimous support for him, especially for those of us often at the wrong side of the law. I could count on him for bailing me out whenever I got into trouble, which was not that rare, to be conservative.

As prefect Simon took it upon himself to welcome and mentor those who joined Canada House. One S1 student, now Enoch Sebuyongo, would later recall how he was not only warmly received, but was encouraged by him to commit his life to Christ, just as he had done in SI. “One day he gave us a word of encouragement,” now Dr Enoch Sebuyongo would later recall, “from Psalms 34:8- Oh taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!”

Simon was affected by the NRM led 1980- 5 guerrilla war which was perched in his home area of Luwero. Unable to return home the family of his friend Tim Sentongo took him in where he became an adopted son. After passing A’level both joined Makerere university in the 1981 class year, with Simon taking a B.Science degree; Tim going for medicine; while Isaac was admitted for a Bsc Agric. Admitted into Lumumba hall, he and Tim, who would later became Chair of the Christian Student Fellowship, were also roommates.

Around that time one of the most thriving evangelical church in Kampala was the Redeemed Church, just outside Makerere university main gate. Built of reeds ( kiwempe) the church preached fervently for any who cared to listen to accept Jesus as a personal saviour. Simon, along with Isaac, not only joined this church but soon bandied up with a number of university students, including Alen Kakuyo Kagina, later to head the UNRA and Jennifer Lubwama Musisi, later to head KCCA, to form the Restoration Band. “Simon played drums,” recalled Isaac, sometimes bass, but also sung. A famous song he led was written by Ben Kayizi, called “Bind man”!

Soon after graduating, in 1988, Simon took up employment with then Uganda Post and Telecommunications Limited ( UPTL). These days it is quite rare to find someone who works for virtually one organization for all his entire life, which was to be his case. He started out at the bottom in the regulatory department, along with one of his Budo classmates, Eng Miriam Wambuzi Kawuma.

In mid 1990s after the liberalization of Uganda’s economy, UPTL was broken up into Uganda Telecommunications Limited (UTL), Uganda Postal Limited (UPL) and UCC. Of the three splinter organizations, UCC, was certainly much smaller and perhaps with less prospects. In hindsight it must have been providence that led Simon to move to the unknown new entity, UCC, in 1998 as one of the first staff there. As Uganda’s telecommunication industry grew, Simon would grow with it, eventually making him as one of the leading telecommunications expert in the country.

In 1998 as a result of liberalization policy the radio industry had opened up to new private stations. I happened to be involved in starting one new FM station, Power FM, and often found myself dropping by his office, based at Communications house, which was responsible for regulating license.

It is there that I came to discover how Simon’s life had progressed since we had left university. In 1990 while at UPTL Simon had met a girl called Agnes whom he started courting. The two got married on 1st March 1992. Though many had since moved on I found Simon was still attending Redeemed church, where he was now one of the elders. In brief, there was little change about the unassuming person I had first met back at school.

As UCC grew to oversee the rapidly growing telecom industry, Simon also grew with it. He rose to be appointed in charge of Telecom Licensing and Service development as well as Service Quality compliance. Later he was promoted Head of Regional Operations at UCC..Finally he became Head of Estates Administration.

In October 2008 the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly ( WTSA) which is held every four years and sets Global Standards elected Simon to serve as the Vice-Chairman of Study Group 13 responsible for Future networks, including mobile telephony. In addition, he was also elected to serve as the Group Rapporteur. Later, the Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) which coordinates standards for telecommunications and Information Communication Technology around the world such as cyber security, elected him to be the first Chairman of the Regional Group for Africa.

Two things about Simon’s working life. In all this time his career was never bloated with a single scandal. Once when he was unfairly made redundant he went to his church and shared how he had lost his job. But his Pastor assured him that the God who gave him that job would redeem him. Indeed, later found blameless, he was recalled. He would end up as one of the longest serving staff at UCC, by the time of his death.

And then, while he was a top official at UCC, Simon shunned the perks that many long for and become so attached to while in big positions. For him he preferred to drive his pick up to work, shunning the official SUV, and normally walked back from office to home, as part of his exercise regime.

Simon also remained a down to earth “simple dude”, as he once described himself. Simon’s friends would come to rely on him for a fast hand whenever in need. “When my university in UK required accreditation of my first degrew” recalled his old friend Isaac, who had since settled in UK as an engineer, “and I didn’t know where turn, once I mentioned it to Simon, despite his busy schedule, he made time and effort to retrieve my transcript. In 2014 Cathy my wife and I needed to process some new personal documents and he just said, “leave it” and in 3 weeks he had it dome.” A hard working man here in Uganda it was common for friends who had issues with their upcoutry land to turn to Simon to help sort out the mind boggling mess of squatters or how to start sustainable farming.

Yet if there were anything that defined Simon was his service to his church, support for his former school and commitment to his family. He never left the church he joined as a young university student. Pastor Robert Kasaija , noted that when he received his first salary he quickly brought his tithe to see the Lord’s work prosper. This is a habit he continued to the end of his life. At King’s College Budo, where his eldest son Aaron Kibirige later joined, the headmaster, Bakka Male found him to be one of the most supportive parents. “Selfless service on house committees,” the Headmaster recalls, “and until his death fees sponsor to the needy.” Once on scholarship, Simon was always looking for students like him, to extend a helping hand.

When he married Agnes, she was still studying her ICSA. Agnes parents had cautioned him, before releasing her, that he commits to let her finish her studies. He never abandoned that promise. “Aside from being a good husband,” she would later testify, “he made sure that I completed my studies. He would drive me to school and wait to pick me up. After passing he accompanied me to UK for the award of my ICSA Certification.” Agnes now works in the Internal Audit Department of KCCA.

Early this year while chatting on the Budo 77-83 class forum Simon shared with pride, how their first born, Aaron Kibirige had graduated as a mechanical engineer. Sarah Namuggga, who follows, as an ICT specialist. Meanwhile Solome Nankumbi had just finished S6 at Gayaza High School, while the last born Samantha Nakubulwa, was in her P7 vacation.

At the start of last week Simon started feeling unwell. He took some medication to stem a serous bout of cough and flu. Describing himself as a “bad patient” he prayed for complete healing. After recovering from one long sleepless night, on June 14th he sent a message of praise to his friends on his church forum. With his energy returned he reported back to work. On our class forum that day he sent a message of condolence to Dr Frank Lule, who had just lost his father.

Simon had a full day at work up to Wednesday. However, on Thursday, he woke up weak and decided to stay home for rest. Later in the day, Agnes noticed him struggling with his breathing, and decided to rush him to Kampala hospital. By the time the car got to the hospital he had slipped away quietly to meet the Lord Jesus whom he had accepted as his Savior as a small boy, back in 1977.

Simon was a man whom you met and made you feel like a giant. He carried himself so simply and many would miss him as he walked back home from work, yet he was a global telecoms industry icon. He was looking eagerly for retirement, but the Lord had better plans.

“Quick feet” is now forever with his Lord and saviour.