Although Elizabeth Babirye and Catherine Priscalla Nakato, aged 90, are fraternal twins, they are of the ‘same’ size and height. They, too, are both veteran midwives.

Fraternal twins are conceived when two eggs (ova) are produced and fertilised by two separate sperms to form two genetically unique foetuses. The foetuses grow in separate sacks and have different placentas. Sometimes, the babies are of the same sex as the case is for Babirye and Nakato.

Others end up being of mixed sex (boy and girl). Babirye and Nakato are grateful to God for keeping them alive. Nakato attributes her longevity to a healthy lifestyle comprised of regular exercise and a well-balanced diet.

Nakato eats all types of local foods, but mostly enjoys rice, groundnut source, fruits and green leafy vegetables. She does not enjoy meat and she eats fast foods occasionally.

In addition, Nakato exercises regularly; specifically, she embraces brisk walking. For example, she can walk a distance of two kilometres, from Wandegeya to Kalerwe market and back.

Most importantly, to date, Nakato traverses the Kanyanya community, where she resides, preaching the word of God. On the contrary, Babirye likes drinking milk tea with sugar, and takes light supper.

Dr Gonzaga Andabati, a consultant gynaecologist or obstetrician at Bethany Women Hospital in Luzira, Kampala, said in the past, it was a challenge for twins or multiple babies born together to survive. However, lately, twins are living longer.

Andabati attributes the new trend characterised by survival and longevity of twins to proper feeding and good care.

Childhood

Nakato and Babirye were born to Gimei of Mbale and Deborah Namuddu of Kyaggwe.

Nakato recollects that their late father was polygamous and that their mother was his youngest wife. So, when their mother was in advanced stages of pregnancy, she asked their father to let her go back home and deliver under the supervision of her mother (the twins’ grandmother).

“Probably, our mother realised she would not get much support and attention from our late father. Besides, she feared that the pregnancy was so huge, though she did not know she was carrying twins,” Nakato recalls.

Sadly, their mother delivered at home and developed severe bleeding immediately after giving birth, and died.

School days

After the death of their mother, Babirye and Nakato were entrusted in the care of their relatives, until British Good Samaritans picked and took them to Sanyu Babies Home located in Mengo, Kampala.

After three years, the Bazungu took them to their home. When the twins turned six, they were enrolled at Mengo Kindergarten and, a year later, they joined Buloba Primary and Girls Boarding School.

Nakato attended primary school with the former first lady, Miria Kalule Obote. The twins exhibited excellent academic performance and they hoped to join a junior school.

To their surprise, their English benefactors revealed that there was no money to enrol them in a junior school. It is then that got to know that their education was being funded by the British. Later, the twins were enrolled at Nursing Training School Mengo — Babirye preferred to study midwifery, while Nakato was advised to pursue nursing.

After completing the nursing course, Nakato was also encouraged to enrol for midwifery and graduated in 1952. Around the time in 1954, when Queen Elizabeth II came to Uganda to officiate the opening of the Owen Falls Dam, Nakato was among the team of health workers on standby to offer first aid.

After graduating, Nakato first worked at Mengo Hospital, and a year later, she was recruited at Mulago National Referral Hospital, where she worked in the theatre and medical wards for two years before joining Jinja Hospital.

Later, Nakato was transferred to Tororo Hospital, but also worked in Dabani Health Centre in Tororo district, before she was moved to Mbale Hospital. She also served in Kamuge and Budaka health centres in Mbale district.

While working at Budaka, 10 years into service, Nakato was among the 20 midwives who were selected to attend a training in child health care in Mbarara district. However, what Nakato feared most was using English as a medium of instruction, since she had not advanced to high school to study the language just like her peers.

 Luckily, she was able to grasp the concepts and emerged the first. After training, she worked in Bwizibwera, Ibanda, Kabwohe and Kitagata. However, it did not take long before Nakato was transferred to Entebbe Grade B Hospital to train fellow midwives and nurses about breastfeeding.

Nakato travels

Later, Nakato’s niece invited her to London, United Kingdom. After a month-long stay, she travelled to Germany to visit her daughter, Judith Navuga. Later, in 1993, Nakato travelled to Boston, and, after a year, she travelled to New York to visit another niece.

During her visit in New York, she undertook more training in home aid and later got a job to offer home aid services. In February 2012, she returned to Uganda and started staying with her son, Bishop Harry Moris Bukenya of Eden Revival Church in Wandegeya.

Upon completing the midwifery course, Babirye worked in Wakiso Hospital and Masulita Health Centre. She, too, was passionate about her job and as such, the mothers she attended to loved her.

Currently, Babirye is in the care of her daughter, Joyce Buko, who resides in Kibirizi village in Bamunanika sub-county in Luwero district.

Childhood memories

Twins tend to do things together, to the extent that sometimes they fall sick at the same time. Nakato recalls a scenario when they both developed a fever. They were taken to hospital and discovered to have a high temperature.

However, they feared injections, and so they decided to fill their mouth with water in an attempt to cool bodies. To their disappointment, their body temperature persisted.

Personality or character

Nakato describes Babirye as being overbearing given her position as a first twin that sometimes she has to push her around to do chores and run errands for her.

“Sometimes she wants me to serve her meals and help her to conduct her bath since she is my elder sister, I have no choice, except to obey her,” she says.

Nakato also describes Babirye as bold and outspoken; and that she does not mince her words. Interestingly, Nakato is reserved.

Message to fellow midwives

As midwives, Babirye and Nakato advise fellow midwives to be clean, dedicated to their job and be kind to mothers.

About twins’ festival

Throughout the month of August, Vision Group will be publishing stories of twins or multiples across all its platforms. Vision Group unveiled the first Kampala Twins Festival in 2014. The annual tradition is aimed at celebrating the blessing of twins.

The twins’ children speak out

Harry Moris Bukenya described his mother (Catherine Priscalla Nakato) as a humourous and warm-hearted person.

“She encouraged us to study hard and she, too, loved education in her childhood,” he noted.

It is not by surprise that to date, the duo (Elizabeth Babirye and Nakato) spend their free time reading the Bible, a practice Bukenya thinks has contributed to their longevity.

The twins are born-again and they worship at Eden Revival Church in Wandegeya, a Kampala suburb.

Bukenya says both his mother and aunt, Babirye, are healthy, strong and rarely fall sick. Except that, lately, Babirye is losing her memory and is developing pain in her legs.

Esther Joan Kasamani, a daughter of Nakato, describes the twins as jolly. She says they love grooming people.

“They mind their appearance and always strive to be smart,” she says.

To date, the twins, especially Nakato, still help with light chores at home and caring for their grandchildren.