The Kimera family lost a gem

“Tonny Alikomawo ddi?” (“When will Tonny return?”). Over the past year, seven-year-old Cleopatra Nakiyimba has been bothering her parents, asking about Tonny.

They have told her that Tony went to some far away place and that she would see him some day.

Today, Nakiyimba maintains muted skepticism about her parents’ explanations for the whereabouts of the guy she knew as her big brother and best friend.

Tonny Lubimba, 23, was killed in a bomb blast at Kyadondo Rugby Grounds on July 11 last year.

When he left home on the fateful day, his plan was to go to Seeta, where he would spend a night. “But somewhere along the way, his friends called and asked him to join them for the World Cup soccer finals at Kyadondo,” says Edward Kimera, Lubimba’s adopted father.

Several hours into the game, two blasts went off. Lubimba did not survive. Kimera spent one hectic day trying to look for Lubimba’s body.

“We stepped over dead bodies in the mortuary to identify him,” Kimera says.

The gruesome treatment that bodies were subjected to in Mulago Hospital still haunts him.

When the news of Lubimba’s passing came, Nakiyimba and her two little sisters were at school. His body was not taken to their Muyenga home for them to pay their last respects. Neither did they attend his burial. Instead, they saw people thronging their house after the burial. This confused them even more.

Today, the family is coming to terms with the sudden death of the boy they so loved.

“He was such a responsible young man,” says Kimera.

The vacuum that Lubimba’s death brought to this family is unmistakable. A haunting silence descended upon the family when I went to talk to them.

Nakiyimba and her two sisters wore long skewed faces throughout the interview. Not even a friendly prod could get them to talk about Tonny. Towards the end, 10-year-old Keren Naluggwa whispered: “He was my best friend; I miss him very much.”

She has hidden one of Lubimba’s photos “because I don’t want to forget him.”

Kimera feigned a brave face. “I do not understand why he went to Kyadondo,” he said, then bowed his head in silence.

Mrs. Kimera managed a few words: “His plan was not to go to Kyadondo…”

Hard times
Such is the loss for a family that brought up Lubimba as their own child. He was in Primary Four at St. Francis Primary School in Ntinda when Kimera took him on.

“I met him through my son; the two were good friends,” he says. At the time they met him, Lubimba had been sent away from school for failure to pay school fees. “He was being supported by a nun who struggled to keep him in school,” Kimera says.

Lubimba was a toddler when his real father was brutally murdered.

“He was shot in the presence of his wife and children,” Kimera says.

Lubimba’s mother, he adds, was so traumatised that she lost her senses and has never recovered.

The boy that Kimera’s family took on proved to be a gem. He joined St. Mary’s College Kisubi, where he not only excelled academically, but also served as assistant house prefect for Lourdel House.

At school, he was the humble, ever friendly young man, an excellent linguist with a passion for French.

“He scored a Distinction A in French and continued to study the language at Kyambogo University, where he was pursuing a degree in education.

He also used to give French lessons to students of Seeta High School.

“He hoped to go to France for further studies. He also planned to become a good teacher,” says Kimera.

All these hopes were blown away by the bomb that killed Lubimba. Today, his family is still searching for answers.

“Football was not his game, why did he go to Kyadondo?” wonders Mrs. Kimera.

Mister fix-it-all
At home, Lubimba was the guardian of his four little sisters, a mister fix-it-all of sorts, helping with the homework, taking the little ones to school and playing with them. His absence is felt much more when time comes for those crucial duties that he so graciously performed.

For now, the family has put all the paraphernalia that remind them of Lubimba away. As they try to overcome the grief, they pray that the Government improves security in this country.

“We do not wish anyone to die the way our beloved boy died,” Kimesa says.