Mayombo inspired young professionals into the army

May 02, 2007

HE is the reason why many young graduates decided to join the army. A brilliant lawyer, an articulate debater, an accomplished diplomat, and a natural leader, Brigadier Noble Mayombo inspired many young professionals to join the institution that was once associated with academic failures. The 42-yea

By Andrew Ndawula
and Emmy Allio


HE is the reason why many young graduates decided to join the army. A brilliant lawyer, an articulate debater, an accomplished diplomat, and a natural leader, Brigadier Noble Mayombo inspired many young professionals to join the institution that was once associated with academic failures. The 42-year-old army officer passed away yesterday at a Nairobi hospital.

He was airlifted from Kampala International Hospital, where he had been admitted over the weekend, with acute pancreatistis.

The New Vision board chairman and the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defence, was first rushed to Kololo hospital last Thursday. His condition however continued to deteriorate, despite frantic efforts by a team of Cuban, Israeli and Ugandan doctors to save his life.

News of his demise was received with shock and disbelief by relatives, friends and colleagues in the army.
“Noble symbolised a dream of upholding and fulfilling the achievements recorded in our struggle. Being among the young cadres of our revolution, he symbolised our hope in the new generation”, commented the coordinator of the intelligence services, Gen. David Tinyefuza.

Born in Fort Portal in 1965, Mayombo grew up in a large, closely knit family of 12 children. His father, an influential clergyman; Rev. Canon James Rabwoni, was at one time one of the three regents of the Toro Kingdom.

In Nyakasura School where he emerged the best student, Mayombo’s future seemed to lie between the church and the academic world.

It therefore came as a shock to everyone who knew him when Mayombo dropped out of Law School in 1985 to join the rebels of the National Resistance Army, who had opened a front in the Rwenzori Mountains in Western Uganda.
After the war, he resumed his law studies at Makerere University, where he initially suffered rejection from fellow students who accused him of being a government spy.

With time, however, he won them over with his charm and persuasive arguments, inspiring many of them to join the army after campus.
He got involved in students’ politics, standing for guild president, against Nobert Mao, currently Gulu district Chairman. These were no ordinary elections. Both candidates harboured higher ambitions and so looked at the guild president race as a dress rehearsal. In the end, Mao won.

“We used to joke that one day, we would repeat our campus campaigns at the national stage,” recalls Mao.
Putting his defeat behind, Mayombo focused on the Constituent Assembly, where he was the youngest delegate, representing the army. It was at the Assembly in 1994/1995 that 29-year old Lieutenant Mayombo cut his political teeth. Youthful, with a photogenic baby face and articulate, he was the darling of the media.

Although primarily representing the army, he had something to contribute to whatever proposal was tabled, thanks to his legal background and natural intellect.
Considering his performance in the Constituent Assembly, it was inevitable that Mayombo would be picked again to represent the army in the 6th parliament.
Besides raising his political profile, Mayombo’s parliamentary work earned him rapid promotion in the army, which later became a subject of debate in the Parliament.
He was promoted to Captain and Major in a time-span of just one year, and appointed Aide-the-camps to President Yoweri Museveni, a job he performed with such devotion that he was labelled the president’s blue-eyed boy.
The story goes that once, while at a public function, the President’s shoe laces got undone. An attentive Mayombo got down on his hunches and tied them up.
Apparently impressed by the young officer’s thoroughness, the commander-in-chief appointed Mayombo Deputy Director of Chieftaincy of Military Intelligence in 1998, at the age of 33. Two years later, he was appointed CMI boss, replacing Brig. Henry Tumukunde.

As spy chief, one of the biggest challenges Mayombo had to face was deploying his men to arrest his brother, Maj. Okwir Rabwoni, who was the head of the youth and students desk in the Kizza Besigye’s task force. That was during the run up to the 2001 presidential elections.

There were other challenges. Again as CMI boss, Mayombo had to undertake several trips to the Democratic Republic of Congo and later to Sudan to negotiate for permission for the UPDF to go in and flush out rebels using those countries as their rear bases.

Named as one of the key respondents in a case where Congo dragged Uganda to the international court, accusing it of stealing its resources, Mayombo had to use his legal skills to clear his name and that of the government.

Another time, Rwandan government officials accused him of being one of the people heading the “directorate of dirty tricks and propaganda” in the Office of the President, accusing him of spreading a hate campaign against the regime in Kigali and the person of President Paul Kagame.

In 2004, Mayombo and 30 other high ranking UPDF officers were sent to the army college at Kimaka for a one year course. At the end of the course, Gen. Tinyefuza emerged best student, winning the Honour Graduate Trophy, with Mayombo, the youngest participant, emerging as runner-up. The award recognised students combining high academic performance with wide military experience, professionalism and tactical ability. Tinyefuza and Mayombo also won the first and second prize respectively in the Commandant’s Research Paper, while Mayombo got the Central Lecture Hall Award for the most active student in class.

Again those who knew Mayombo well were not surprised. His masters thesis is one of the most sought after titles in Makerere University’s law school library.

Last year, after the presidential elections, Mayombo was appointed both permanent secretary in the Ministry of Defense and Chairman of the Board of The New Vision.

The same opposition politicians, who once criticised his rapid rise in the army, now condemned his appointment as permanent secretary, describing it as militarisation of the civil service. Used to criticism, Mayombo just took up the new assignments and gave his best.
Although it meant forfeiting the political debate he had been part of for over a decade, Mayombo dutifully resigned his position as army representative in parliament.

One of his last assignments has been training over 1,000 sub-county chiefs from all over the county in preparation for the Bonna Baggaggawale (Prosperity-for-all) micro-finance scheme.

When bidding farewell to the other great leader of Uganda, the late James Wapakhabulo, President Museveni named Wapakhabulo, Mayombo and Mbabazi his three most loyal and committed soldiers.

Mayombo leaves behind a wife and six children

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