Second highest Ugandan priest in the Church of England retires

By Enock Mayanja Kiyaga in London

I first heard and new about the life of this man of God in the early 90s in my High School days when he served as a Secretary General of the Kingdom of Buganda.

He was later to return to his ministry work in the UK. I was later to meet him in London and through shared passion for Buganda and Uganda as well as working for the community, we were to become friends and worked together and leant a lot from this great man of God.

Such was a great honour to be invited for, a special farewell service  on Tuesday March 8, 2016 in honour of the venerable Daniel Steven Kimbugwe Kajumba (63), Archdeacon of Reigate at St. Matthew's Church, Redhill in London.

Despite being a weekday, the Church with a sitting capacity of over 300 people was filled to capacity with a mixed carefully selected congregation from all backgrounds across the board. This spoke volumes about his popularity amongst the white as well as the black and minority ethnic communities in the UK. 

Until his retirement, Kajumba has been the second highest Ugandan priest serving in Church of England after Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York.  He has also been heading the powerful Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns.

The main celebrant was the Bishop of Southwark Rt. Revd Christopher Chessun who also performed a duty of conferring a star title and dignity of Archdeacon Emeritus to Ven. Dan Kajumba in appreciation of his great service to the ministry.

The preacher of the day was the Bishop of Croydon Rt. Revd Jonathan Clark who described Kajumba as a man of great gifts and talents who has always used them to the benefit of others. He said Kajumba's ministry was always joyous as opposed to doing a job as a routine and for the sake of it.

"If there's any gift we can give to Daniel (Kajumba) is to emulate him and go out there and live a life of discipleship and inspire others in turn to do the same" said Bishop Clark.

Daniel Steven Kimbugwe Kajumba, Archdeacon of Reigate at St. Matthew's Church, Redhill in London who retired

The service was followed by entertainment and kiganda traditional dances by the Youth club of the nearby St. Jude and St. Aidan Church headed by Revd Nathan Ntege. The main highlight was a performance by the famous Ganda Boys who are part of the many young people and talent Ven. Kajumba has helped in mentoring.

In his farewell speech, Kajumba who is now going to concentrate on his new Charity, The New Creation Foundation which is involved in supporting the poor and vulnerable children in Uganda said, that his service has always been guided by his belief and understanding that following Jesus is about serving others. "It's about serving the underprivileged as opposed to serving self" he said.

Born in 1952 in Uganda. Ven. Kajumba was exiled to Britain during Idi Amin's regime in Uganda, he worked at different times in a factory, as an auxiliary nurse, a youth officer, deputy warden of a Christian hostel and as proprietor of a home for the elderly before training for the ministry on the Southwark Ordination Course. 

He was priested in 1986, serving his curacy in St Albans Diocese before returning to Uganda in 1987 where he served as a non-stipendiary minister whilst working as a senior executive in the Ugandan Government and later as the Secretary General of the Kingdom of Buganda, in the central part of Uganda. In 2001, he was appointed Archdeacon of Reigate a position he has served till February 2016 when he stepped down after some bouts of ill-health to spend more time with his family. He is married to Tina and they have two children.

In his book, "King on the Throne", the author Charles Peter Mayiga, now Prime Minister (Katikkiro) of Buganda commenting about Kajumba's pivital role in restoration of Buganda Kingdom that had been abolished in 1967 by Obote regime, wondered whether Kajumba's sincerity in his service to his Kabaka and Country stems out of his priestly calling or simply comes as a trait of his character.

He further wrote "Commitment to pursuit of revered goals is often interpreted by detached bystanders as naivety; so whoever saw Kajumba's personal facilities like cars being wrecked to pieces as they carried out the Kabaka's and Secretariat errands, day and night, could not but come to the same conclusion"..

No wonder when Bishop Clark was commenting about Kajumba's service to the Church of England said, Britain benefited a lot from Uganda's loss when Kajumba was exiled due to Idi Amin's insurgency.