The man who raised the Nabagereka turns 101 years

 

 

IN a mucky Kasenyi Road, an unpredictable road which leads to a somewhat desolate place with flabby houses, a bright-coloured posh bungalow of the old European architecture stands out.

 

“That’s the landlord’s residence,” a resident tells us. It is the home of Mzee Nelson Edmund Sebugwawo, Entebbe’s biggest landlord and grandfather of Buganda’s Queen Sylvia Nagginda.

 

Even without much information about Sebugwawo, his home alone is a sign of opulence. Inside the neat walls of his perimeter fence is a serene compound dotted with tarmacked driveways and a wide roundabout.

 

The healthy flora gives the home a palatial mark. Sebugwawo inherited the house, built in 1914 by the Catholic White Fathers, from his father, Saul Sebugwawo, in 1933.

 

Even though he will be turning 101 years on Thursday, Sebugwawo is still alert and knows who he is: an affluent man who cannot beg but give.

 

“When I was still strong, I drove only the latest and most expensive car models,” says Sebugwawo who still owns a C-Class Benz. Sebugwawo is a man with a great sense of humour. His jokes alone are enough to shade off one’s stress. It is probably the reason he is a darling not only to his children, but to grandchildren and great grandchildren too. And they are many at his home.

 

He keeps cracking jokes with his now hoarse voice, to everyone’s delight. As if to prove his alertness, his driver asks him to mention his (driver’s) name. “Your duty is to drive me. I don’t need to know you. When I call my driver, you have nothing but to show up,” the old man replies, laughing lightly to his own answer.

 

Then he switches to marriage issues, asking us (the five men from New Vision) whether we had women. Upon hearing that we were all bachelors, he falls back slightly, then forward, laughs a bit and assures us,

 

“Don’t worry, I will give you some of my granddaughters.”

 

But the five hours we spent with him were not enough to convince him that we had what it took to be his in-laws. He insisted we keep waiting.

 

“Daddy just wants to make fun,” one of his 28 children, Eve Nassejje, 62, interjected.

Born on April 26, 1911, Sebugwawo refers whoever enquires about the secret behind his long life to “ask God.”

 

He is a strong Christian who never misses church service even in his old age. No wonder, he donated part of his five square miles of land to St. Luke’s Church Nkumba before contributing significantly to its construction.

 

He built the church about three decades ago. But when his granddaughter, Nagginda, gave birth to Princess Katrina Ssangalyambogo in 2001, Sebugwawo again expanded the church in ‘appreciation of God’s love.’

 

Indeed, Sebugwawo has always been bighearted. At a time when land began selling like hot cake, he did not hesitate to donate his to causes he was convinced would transform society.

 

Other institutions that have benefited from his philanthropy include Nkumba University, which he gave over 30 acres of land at its inception.

He has been a member of the university’s board of trustees up to today. His relentless love for education again compelled him to donate more land to Nkumba Primary school before giving out more to Katabi sub-county to construct its headquarters.

 

Sebugwawo also donated a large chunk of land which harbours the army training facility in Kasenyi.

 

But even with such great contribution, Sebugwawo remains meek.

 

“It is hard for a person to recall his contribution to society although the beneficiaries of his works may remember,” he says.

 

“I don’t recall doing anything good for any person or institution, not even for Buganda,” he says.

 

And as the interview flows, the humour in Sebugwawo keeps permeating through.

 

“Women have always liked me. Even in old age, many of them still try to seduce me but I turn them down,” he says and laughs, before adding,

 

“I also wonder what they are looking for in me.”

He adds, “If any of my wives ran away, I would not bring her back. And if I sweet-talked a lady and she rejected me, I would not go back to her; after all she would have saved me from problems.”

 

About his siblings, he says they wouldn’t be pleased if he mentioned their names, because, as we later discovered, they are dead. Asked to comment about the current politics, Sebugwawo wondered whether Uganda was independent.

 

“If I met the President, I would ask him to give Ugandans independence,” says Sebugwawo, an accomplished leader in his own right.

 

He studied at Nkumba day school, Mengo High School and Kings’ College Buddo, before joining Namutamba Farm School to study agriculture.

 

After school, he inherited his father’s position of parish chief and was promoted to subcounty chief during Kabaka Muteesa II’s time.

 

Ssebugwawo served as a chief in several counties.

 

In 1950, he was appointed a junior judge in the kingdom, before becoming a finance minister. He played a significant role in the London conference that discussed the issue of the lost counties of Buyaga and Bugangaizi, and preparations for the election of the first Ugandan president.

 

He was one of the delegates who represented Buganda in the drafting of the 1962 constitution.

 

He successfully spearheaded campaigns for Kabaka Muteesa II as the first Ugandan president.

 

Sebugwawo narrates how he owned a host of bars yet he has never tested alcohol or cigarette.

 

He also owned Lido Beach at one point, before he sold it off.

 

Besides bars, Sebugwawo is an accomplished farmer. His home farm had hundreds of pigs, cattle, poultry and goats. In 2009, he had 800 pigs before swine fever swept the farm. In addition, he operated a maize mill and also traded in cattle which he would buy from the villages and sell in different markets.

 

“I would like to be remembered as a person who laboured and worked hard to serve people, a humble and meek person who loves God,” Sebugwawo writes in his 53-page draft book, My Life: A Brief Autobiography.

 

The book’s highlights include his marriage to his first wife, Kasalina Namayaza, who impressed him by her “beautiful face and legs.” The couple wed in 1936 at Namirembe Cathedral and was blessed with 13 children.

 

In 1950, 14 years after his marriage to Kasalina, he married Princess Robinah Naluwaga, with whom he got 10 children. Naluwaga passed away in 2001 while Kasalina died in 2007 at the age of 88.

 

Although two of his sisters, Catherine Kimbowa and Dorothy Nabankema, were married to Kabaka Chwa, his granddaughter Sylvia Nagginda’s marriage to Kabaka Mutebi in 1999 ranks highly among Sebugwawo’s memories.

 

Due to his good deeds, Sebugwawo will be joined by dozens of public figures to celebrate his 101th birthday on Saturday.