{UAH} KISAMBA MUGERWA THE WAY I KNEW HIM

By John V Sserwaniko

In the second week of August 2018, National Planning Authority (NPA) organized a massive ceremony at Sheraton Hotel where close to 500 stakeholders gathered to dance the evening away. It was the sendoff ceremony for Prof Dr. Wilberforce Kisamba Mugerwa who had impactfully served as NPA Executive Chairman for 10 years (2008-2018). The cocktail dinner at Sheraton was preceded by a public lecture during which friends like Prof Apollo Nsibambi, peers and contemporaries made speeches reflecting on Prof Kisamba Mugerwa's 47 years of public service.

At the same event, Prof Kisamba launched a number of books which he had authored sharing his experience of the preceding 47 years which saw him distinctively serve as an academic, researcher at Makerere's MISR & abroad; legislator/MP, UN worker, Minister and government technocrat. We at Mulengera News are naturally fascinated by written books especially those that are history-inspired. This naturally made Prof Kisamba Mugerwa's books uniquely interesting to us especially the one titled: "Kisamba Mugerwa's Focused Journey; a Tale of Courageous Strides." In that book, the man from Bamunanika candidly discussed his life story, participation in the 1980 elections, being DP MP in Obote II Parliament (1980-1985), his days as Minister in President Museveni's cabinet, his role in things like The Entandiikwa scheme and things like that.

 

Kisamba Mugerwa (M) at the Golf Course EPRC event many months ago.

This book was specifically very controversial because Prof Kisamba even candidly discussed his points of departure and principled disagreement with Gen Museveni and others regarding Uganda's economic transformation journey. He was also critical in some way about Luwero's underdevelopment, poverty and destitution even when it is where Gen Museveni's 5-year bush war, in which over 500,000 people died, was anchored. We naturally reviewed and serialized the book and this turned out to be a win-win situation. Our Mulengera News (www.mulengeranews.com) got the traffic while publicizing Kisamba's controversial memoirs. We got many phone calls from curious readers & researchers seeking to be directed where to find a copy or even how to speak to the author. And that is how we got in touch with Prof Kisamba Mugerwa who was initially introduced to us by NPA Executive Director Dr. Joseph Muvawala and Dr. Patrick Birungi who has since moved on to head Uganda Development Corporation (UDC) as ED.

Kisamba appreciated the publicity and that is how the relationship between us and him started. As the serialization continued, we relayed to him all the feedback we kept getting and he encouraged that we share his phone number with those curious readers many of them were asking where to get more copies from. As the book sales skyrocketed, Kisamba grew even more interested in online and social media way of publicizing things. He began interesting and alerting us about the major economic discussions foras where he would be invited (ostensibly to deepen the publicity of his often very controversial views).  

Having gained enough trust in us, repeatedly saying he liked our quality of writing and style of presentation, Kisamba became such a valuable professional friend often prompting us on the exclusive story ideas to pursue. Having become our ardent reader, he would often call to make suggestions on how he thought we could improve and even do better. Quite often, he jokingly imploring us to "always reach out to me whenever you require assistance in terms of being connected to key technocrats in government Ministries or being helped to understand controversial matters or documents." We had just started our online news business and such solidarity is what we required more than anything else.

Prof Kisamba would call or reach out via whatsapp asking "How is business? How come you haven't written anything about this?" His generous and welcoming attitude saw us drive to his Komamboga home many times (near Kyanja) seeking to deepen our understanding in case we had come across a sensitive government document over which we required some interpretation to deepen our understanding before being able to report about the same with clarity. Gratefully, he had a huge office block inside his heavily fortified Komamboga compound. In there is a spacious study room where he used to welcome us for consultation and informal discussions seeking to deepen our understanding about how government operates both in the political and technical arena.

At some point, Prof Kisamba insisted that we visit on a Sunday so that he introduces us to his wider family; children, grandchildren and in-laws. Clearly he was a man who loved his family; freely playing with his grandchildren inside the vast compound. He equally liked watching TV with them. From our frequent conversations, Kisamba came off as a modest man who despised material things and the resultant corruption desire for such things breeds. Even when he was economically a well-accomplished man, Kisamba preferred to live a very simple life; ever encouraging honesty and hard work. He was also frank and never resented being quoted for his views provided you quoted him correctly.

We recall when Beti Kamya became Minister of Kampala and proclaimed an ambitious plan to transform infrastructure and the quality of housing not just Kampala but the entire Metropolitan. Saying the Minister hadn't been consultative enough and that many stakeholders had been excluded, Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago objected to the Kamya move and there was a lot of ugly media exchange.

The subsequent weekend we met with Dr. Kisamba Mugerwa whose views (as former Chairman NPA which had authored a more comprehensive plan under NDP seeking to address similar concerns) were very controversial; bordering on being politically risky because Kamya kept insisting these were Gen Museveni's views and not hers as a Minister. It turned out NPA considered Lukwago's view being the right one and Kisamba Mugerwa didn't mind being portrayed as siding with Lukwago. "I'm not just telling you this my son. Go ahead and quote me because this is something I can explain to the President and if need be we indeed are going to meet him and explain ourselves with my colleagues at NPA," he said one afternoon during an informal discussion at his Komamboga home. The free-spirited Kisamba went as far as questioning the purpose Kamya's Kampala Ministry serves. Saying it was an irrelevant Ministry, Kisamba urged Gen Museveni to abolish the same.

Prof Kisamba Mugerwa was also a generous mentor who was always willing to use his connections to help one connect to a business opportunity once he believed in your standards and way of doing things. "Ehh mutabani you thought I was a small man. That Ndejje University I'm also there because I'm the Chancellor and when you find time, let me know and I introduce you to the Vice Chancellor for some business opportunities provided you aren't very expensive in your rate card," he one time told us as we struggled to start finding business and adverts to sustain our business operations.

After leaving NPA, a reluctant Prof Kisamba Mugerwa was deployed by Gen Museveni to go and help to sort out Uganda Microfinance Support Center (UMSC) and, having become his trusted friends, we were among the first people he shared this development with. "Pray for me my son because it's not an easy place given the negative stories the press has been reporting about those people. Keep in touch and not very far from me because I will need you to run for us some stories to support and publicize the reforms we shall be implementing," Prof Kisamba said.

Meeting him several weeks later, Prof Kisamba said he had reported for work but had realized the situation inside there was more complicated than he thought. "First give me time; it's now too early. I will tell you know when we are ready to do something with you." The next time we met him, Prof Kisamba intimated that the situation at the UMSC was actually so complex and frightening, he had at some point even considered bowing out but vowed to soldier on. His apprehension was that the financial scandals at the Center would soil his good record yet he purposed this to be his very last public service role.

We later learnt from our Cabinet and State House sources that Gen Museveni and line Minister Matia Kasaijja had sat him down insisting that he doesn't leave. He was assured of all the political support he required to clean up things at UMSC. He demanded that Gen Museveni and Kasaijja put this in writing because his intended reforms at UMSC would rub many powerful people in government and private sector the wrong way. Kisamba wanted assurances that the two political leaders would stand by him in case the powerful (whose proxies would inappropriately borrow much of the microfinance money meant for the very poor) fought back.

We subsequently got to speak to Prof Kisamba seeking his confirmation of what our sources had intimated to us. Saying the time wasn't right, Prof Kisamba refused to refute nor confirm these reports preferring that we postpone our reporting about the situation at UMSC to enable him time to do his best to deescalate things first. We nevertheless remained in touch and often interacted with him about the microfinance arena and was always pained by the fact that the poor, for whom Gen Museveni purposed such microfinance money, weren't being empowered enough to be the primary beneficiaries.

The last time we physically met Prof Kisamba was at the beginning of the year 2020 at Golf Course Hotel where the Makerere-based Economic Policy Research Center (EPRC) had Ministers Matia Kasaijja and others launch the new industrialization agenda titled: "Fostering a Sustainable Agro-Industrialization Agenda in Uganda." Because of his vast experience and practice in such matters, Kisamba (who is also credited for shepherding teams that authored the Uganda Vision 2040) was among the key note speakers. And in his comments, Kisamba commended the EPRC for such an excellent document but expressed skepticism as whether the country's political leadership would immediately prioritize availing the required funding for the intervention.

In response, one of the organizers casually demonized Kisamba "for over lamenting and being such a pessimist." The audience responded by laughing cynically as Kisamba struggled to get the opportunity to clarify what his point was. That opportunity wasn't accorded yet the cynical laughter by the audience carried on making Kisamba to fill uncomfortable. He instantly cut the demeanor of a very broken man and showed his resentment by walking out having declined to join the organizers and other official for a group photo. That, in physical terms, was the last time we met our old friend Prof Kisamba Mugerwa and only remained in touch with him through phone calls, whatsapp and text messages.

We considered that he was okay and doing fine until Thursday 7^th January late afternoon when a journalist friend, working with Vision Group, called us asking "banange nga Kitalo Dr. Kisamba Mugerwa is gone." The rest, as they say, is history and we can only say Rest in Peace Prof Kisamba Mugerwa; our ardent reader, advisor and supporter who enabled us thrive in a multiplicity of ways. These are some of the many stories Mulengera News carried about Prof Kisamba Mugerwa:https://mulengeranews.com/kisamba-spills-shocking-m7-secrets-in-new-book/; https://mulengeranews.com/kisamba-mugerwa-hangs-his-boots-npa-but-how-will-he-be-remembered/  ;https://mulengeranews.com/npa-sees-off-kisamba-mugerwa-in-style/. This is a rich collection including a section on who Kisamba Mugerwa was: basically his profile, his works and accomplishments as an academic, researcher, legislator, Minister, technocrat and UN worker.

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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