Uganda’s Kibuuka flies Norway’s flag

By Sylvia Nabanoba
in Norway
“I have represented Norway in five Olympics. In 1984, I won three silver medals in the USA. They were for 800, 1,500 and 5,000 metre races. In 1988 in South Korea I got a silver for 5,000m and a bronze for 1,500m, while in 1992 in Barcelona I won a silver medal for a 42km marathon. And at the opening ceremony it was I who carried the Norwegian flag.”
All these details roll off his tongue with ease. He doesn’t look at any document — I can just see him searching his memory. His only disappointments were in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, where he came fourth and in 2000 in Australia where he didn’t complete the race due to an injury.
Although he has represented Norway in the Paralympics (Olympics for the handicapped) like this, Tofiri Kibuuka is ‘a son of the soil’. His is a long story that starts with the publicity he got after being one of the first blind people to reach the peak of Mountain Kilimanjaro in 1968. This he did while a student at Outward Bound School, Kenya.
The conquest of Kilimanjaro earned Kibuuka and his two colleagues a lot of publicity. Evidence of this lies in a February 28, 1969 clipping from The Uganda Argus that hangs in his Oslo office. It is next to several clippings from Norwegian newspapers that have written about Kibuuka’s exploits. Titled Climbed into History, it shows the then Minister of Labour and patron of the Uganda Outward Bound Trust congratulating young Kibuuka and his colleagues John Opio and Lawrence Sserwambala on their arrival at the Uganda Railway Station from Kenya.
This publicity earned Kibuuka an invitation from a Norwegian organisation promoting sports for the disabled. In 1972, he set foot on Norwegian soil. A visit which was meant to take only a few weeks resulted into a lifetime, since at the time there was chaos in Uganda after the overthrow of Obote.
“I stayed for one year, hoping to go back home, but when things didn’t improve I decided to go on with my life. I started running, on a small scale, and also went back to school.
“In 1981 I was granted Norwegian citizenship and then settled here.”
He has no golds from the Paralympics, but he has got them in other competitions. In the World Championships in 1990 he got a gold medal, in the European Championships in Russia in 1987 and in Switzerland in 1989, too.
Kibuuka is now a physiotherapist, having retired from running last year, after about 17 years. Compared with both the blind athletes and those who see, he says he had spent the longest time on the team.
“When I was retiring, my friends advised me to become a physiotherapist. Since I had got almost all the possible injuries while a sportsman, they said I’d do a great job. And I had studied Physiotherapy at university in 1978.”
Physiotherapy, or Physical Therapy, is concerned with the assessment, maintenance and restoration of the physical function and performance of the body. It is useful in the management of a wide range of injuries that include sports injuries, back and neck pain, arthritis and rehabilitation following cardiac surgery.
Kibuuka treats those who have been injured in sports and elsewhere.
His clinic is private, which, in socialist Norway, puts him at a great disadvantage.
“Almost 95% of Norway’s physiotherapists are subsidised by the government, which means patients pay between 40 and 60% of the bill. My clinic is fully private, so I charge relatively high fees. A session is about 400 Norwegian kroners (about sh102,800), and on average I see a patient for three sessions.”

Though expensive, Kibuuka’s clinic gets many patients. Most of the athletes go to him, among whom are Norway’s big names. The fact that he was a well-known athlete is a bonus to his business as many people trust him.
He has therefore won many patients because those he treats act as his advertisers.
Kibuuka’s story is proof of the old cliché, disabled but not unable. Born in 1947 in Kyagwe, Mukono to Yokana Wasswa (RIP) and Clementine Nanyonga, he was the third of seven children. He was born with a weakness in his main nerve, which made him half blind at 12 years. By 16, he was completely blind.
“I have always worked hard. When I was about 18 or 19 years, I reared ducks. Although I could not see, I did everything for them. I would walk 3kms carrying water for them. People thought my parents were heartless to let a boy who was blind go looking for water in places with snakes and other harmful creatures. But they were teaching me to be hardworking and self-reliant. If I had been passive, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Kibuuka’s desire to be self-reliant came with him to Norway. He didn’t seclude himself from the sighted world. Many blind people in Norway live near each other in neighbouring apartments, but he decided to live with the sighted. He was inspired by his desire to be independent, and because he knew it was useless to cry over spilt milk. He doesn’t spend time mulling over the blindness, but tries to do his best in the circumstances.
Einar Berntsen, the chairman of the Norwegian Friends of Uganda, affirms that he hasn’t let blindness stand in his way.
“He’s a great person who has handled it well, and as a Norwegian I can say he represented the country well in the Paralympics,” says Berntsen.
Kibuuka is married to Bente Kibuuka, a Norwegian nurse who works with Rickshospitalet, Norway’s main hospital. They have two children, Thomas, 18, and Sarah, 16. Sarah is following in her father’s footsteps, but Thomas wants to be a pilot. The family visited Uganda a few times.
Having left Uganda long ago, Kibuuka says it’s kind of hard to go back now, because apart from his close family, he hardly knows anyone else.
“I miss Uganda, but when I go back I sometimes feel as if I am in no-man’s land. Most of my friends are dead. So when I visit Uganda, I stay at Michael Dougherty’s place, my closest friend. We met in 1979 when he was working as a freelancer after Amin had been toppled.”
Ends