The man who drove the Queen

Dec 02, 2007

GRADUATION, wedding day, the birth of a child….. Such are the experiences that will forever be special and memorable in many people’s lives. But much as some of these experiences are shared, Salim Twalib Khalili’s was exceptional — driving the queen of the United Kingdom and Ireland, during

By Irene Nabusoba

GRADUATION, wedding day, the birth of a child….. Such are the experiences that will forever be special and memorable in many people’s lives. But much as some of these experiences are shared, Salim Twalib Khalili’s was exceptional — driving the queen of the United Kingdom and Ireland, during the just concluded Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Khalili chauffeured Queen Elizabeth II, who was here to open the November 23-25 CHOGM, together with her husband Phillip, the Prince of Edinburgh.
The couple jetted into the country on November 22 and Khalili was their only driver until they left on November 24.

“I have driven some important people like Baroness Lynda Chalker. I have also been driving the British High Commissioners for 10 years. But driving the Queen and her husband was different. The feeling was overwhelming,” Khalili adds.

“You lose the status of an ordinary driver. Your scale weighs heavier. It’s like buying 1kg of meat and another quota of 3kgs; they weigh differently. For me, the queen was like 10kgs of meat — much, isn’t it?” he adds.

Khalili did not have much conversation with the royals save for the curtesy greeting and the handshake, but that was enough for him.

“I had a handshake with the queen, then her husband, when I first met them at the airport and while bidding them goodbye. I felt very good just greeting her. It was a feeling of a social elevation.

Then I opened the door for her and my job was rolling,” he says.
The aura with which Khalili speaks tells you that he is no ordinary achiever in his capacity.

Born on December 12, 1959 in Bombo to Salim Khalili Tanda and Margaret Nalugya (RIP), this former police officer had never thought of rubbing shoulders with the global cream like the queen of England.

Khalili who studied at the then Bombo Sudanese Primary School says he dropped out of school after Primary Seven and opted to join the Police force in 1979 because he did not love books much.

Call him a school dropout, but he speaks fluent English well enough to pass for a graduate. His accent is also clear, actually British inclined probably because of close interaction with his employers.

The light-skinned, medium-size father of seven is talkative and full of emotion. Khalili gives you the impression of an honest man who loves his job.

He speaks with a rich body language, often waving his hands in the air, shrugging and occasionally laughing. He loves to engage the people he is talking to and cares to know if you really understand what he is saying.

“I learnt to drive while in the police force and in 1985 joined the British High Commission as a driver,” he reveals. One year later, the commission, like it does for all its drivers, sent him to the UK for a special driving course.

Even when the second and third training-which he undertook in July this year came, Khalili did not know he was destined to drive the queen until about one month to her coming.

“They first took me for a refresher course in the UK, telling me that I was going to drive a very important person, but I never imagined it would be the queen,” he says.

When his supervisor called him on his return to announce the ‘important guest’, Khalili could not believe it. “I thought I was dreaming. I asked my supervisor over and over again, ‘are you sure? who am I to drive the queen?”’, he recalls happily.

Khalili says he emerged from the office with a very wide smile, talking to himself only to arouse the curiosity of all his colleagues who admired him for his luck.
His worry was how he was going to approach the queen.

I went and asked the commissioner and he tipped me telling me, ‘almost the same way you have been with me. Only that you will have to be more careful and respectful’, he recounts.

‘I went and told my wife about my pending assignment and she was so proud of me. She assured me that I was fit enough for the job,” he says.
But when he told his grandfather about it, his stake in the community’s history went higher.

Apparently, in 1954, when the Queen first visited Uganda, it is still a man from his Nubian community, Idi Asuman, who was driving the then governor Sir Andrew Cohen in state house, who chauffeured her.

Asuman reportedly drove the queen from the airport, to Owen falls dam (Nalubale), which she commissioned and Queen Elizabeth National Park that is named after her.

This was historic for the minority Muslim group, which migrated from southern Sudan in the early 1900, predominantly settling in Bombo.

In 1962, another Nubian-Sebi Farusi Kamjara, lowered the British union Jack flag and hoisted the Ugandan flag when Uganda was getting her independence.
“I have been an addition to those achievers in my community.

In Bombo SS, my children are now popularly known as the queen’s kids and everyone wants to shake my hand because I drove the queen,” Khalili boasts.

And as an honour, the community gathered to have a special meal called Garusa; a mixture of maize flour and a lot of baking flour with a bit of sugar, kasera (mixture of maize flour, baking flour and cassava flour), crowning it with a big cock.

Nevertheless, every special occasion never misses a dark cloud.
“I feel sad that my mother, who passed away in 1971, could not be around to celebrate my life achievement. Even my dad is bedridden right now. I’m praying so hard he gets well and gets to know that I drove the queen,” he says.

But what does he remember most about his ‘royal stunt’? “Driving from Entebbe to Kampala felt like forever. The roads were so jammed. But the crowd was so cheerful, welcoming and well-behaved. I felt proud being Ugandan.

“I remember being so conscious and praying for no mishaps. If a tyre burst, or an accident.… it would have been very shameful for me, but I thank God that it all went well. I feel so brave to have handled such a mighty person successfully,” he says.

John Hamilton, the 2nd secretary at the British High Commission in Kampala, says that their decision to hire Khalili to drive the queen was entirely dependent on his experience.

“He is one of the most experienced drivers we have,” Hamilton says, adding, “otherwise most of our drivers often undertake those special courses in basic driving skills, how to drive in convoys, invasive and defensive driving, and he did the job perfectly.”

And while the rest of us scramble to buy the queen’s picture on streets, Khalili boasts of an autographed photo of the couple, proudly hanging on his wall.
“They gave it to me in the car, after their dinner in Serena Hotel in Kampala,” he says.

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