It's no surprise Kadaga is a top politician

true“I believe my humble beginnings, which my children know very well, made them what they are today. George Wilson Kadaga and his wife Eve spoke to Gladys Kalibbala about raising, their daughter the speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga

There were many setbacks when I set off for Mbulamuti to meet the parents of Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of Parliament. Her mother's cellphone number had been unavailable for a week. I waited four hours in the wrong taxi to Jinja and the bumpy Kamuli Road under construction made the ride uncomfortable.

Unfortunately the taxi went all the way to Kamuli town, instead of dropping me at Busoota, the junction 4km to Mbulamuti. I took a boda boda for a 10-mile ride back. By the time I reached the home, I was distressed. But it all vanished when a smiling Eve Kadaga welcomed me with a hug.

She had gone to her daughter Rebecca's home nearby. Her husband and father of the speaker, George Wilson Kadaga Madali was at home too. He apologised for a poor memory and asked for time to remember details that were once at his fingertips. He suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure, which has weakened him.

He was born in January, 1927 at Kiige village, Bugabula sub-county Kamuli District to the late Alexanda Madali, and Elizabeth Mwenzi. The last of four children, George's father died when he was only three years old. Although he desired to start school, his mother had no money.

trueThe Kadagas parent's home

Quest for education
“When I attended religious teachings at Ivukula before baptism in 1935, I impressed the late Rev. Waibale. He wanted to take me to school but my brother refused to release me. I remained at home to help him in the gardens. Around 1944 I planted cotton, which I intended to sell and get money to enroll at school. 

However, my brother's wife fell sick and was admitted in hospital around that time so the money from the cotton was used for her treatment,” the elderly George recalls.

The following year a lay reader took him to Yekosani Baigala, a headmaster at Ivukula, where he finally started school. In between he got a bursary for two years and studied at Kamuli Primary School, Nawaikoke and Gadumire for the lower classes. After P.6 the financial hurdles resurfaced and he could not continue.

“I resorted to correspondence courses until a friend tipped me that Kabalega Secondary School in Masindi was charging reasonable fees.”

To the unknown
George sold his only cow to an Indian at sh3 and a brother, the late Erusaniya Mpata Isabirye gave him some ghee. Without shoes, books or suitcase, he set off for Masindi by train. On the train he met a student of Kabalega SS who promised to help him.

“I had no money left since I had used sh2 and 80 cents for the ticket. He took me to a widow he knew in Masindi town for the night. I went to the school the next day, only to discover the term would end in two weeks. I was advised to join the next school term. 

I was ready to do any work in order to get fees. I stayed with the widow for a while. The first week was very hard as she had no food. I had just left Busoga where emboli (sweet potatoes) was in plenty,” George explains.

A teacher who learnt of his need gave him a contract to build his house in Hoima. He had never built a house before, but he took up the offer and surprisingly accomplished it. He was paid sh26, which he used to buy a shirt at sh3 and reserved, sh22 for fees as a day scholar. One of the widow's daughters gave George land to build a small hut and plant his own food.

“Within three days I had built my own hut without a door and started planting beans, cassava and potatoes. I fixed a bed out of reeds and for a mattress I cut grass and covered it with banana fibres to make it soft. I covered myself with bark cloth.”

George worked in people's gardens every evening and on weekends to earn his school fees. After Junior 3 at Kabalega he went back home and continued studying by correspondence for the East African Cambridge exams. That is when he also bought his first shoes from proceeds of maize he had planted before going to Masindi. George sat for exams at St Mary's Kisubi and passed. He later joined government employment.

Love and marriage
He later met Eve Kagoya who was born in 1934 to the late Zedekia and Zewulia Muwanga of Nabirere village, Iganga. Her father was a lay reader at Idinda Church of Uganda (COU), who put his daughter through boarding school at Iganga Primary and later Junior school. Eve had completed studies at Iganga Teachers' Training College in 1951.

“Her brother's friend connected us in 1950. By then I worked at Jinja Income Tax department as a clerk. The wedding took place in 1952 at Bukwenge COU and we spent our honeymoon in a small hut at Mbulamuti, which became our home.”

The family settled at Katabi in Entebbe when George got a job there in 1953. The next year Eve started her teaching career at Chadwick Namate Primary School, Entebbe. In 1970, she decided to settle in Mbulamuti in order to plan for the family while she taught at Mbulamuti Primary School. The children stayed with their father in Entebbe and later Kampala before he retired in 1984. The couple had 10 children, six of whom have passed on.

Shaping their children
“I believe my humble beginning, which my children know very well, made them what they are today.

I remember a teacher of Rebecca at Shimoni Primary School predicting her future. I had gone to pick them from school when the Indian teacher told me the girl was very bright and would go very far in studies. She was a prefect and had joined this school from Entebbe without much knowledge of the English language. The teacher wondered how she was always the best in class and was very good at public speaking,” says George.

He boasts that at Namasagali College Rebecca was liked by the school head, Father Damien Grimes and she was their best student the year she joined University.

“I gave her my grandmother's name, Alitwala, which means 'the one who will take that girl will be very lucky as she has rare qualities.

I made sure my children went to good schools to compensate for what I missed. They did not grow up in the village, but would always go back to Mbulamuti for holidays,” the proud father points out.

“Even when they came down for holidays they would remain at home and never gave me trouble like roaming around the village,” Eve adds.

Political parents
Both parents were steeped in local politics and it is no surpise to them that Rebecca followed the same path.

After retirement her father was a councillor for Mbulamuti sub-county and later became the LC3 chairman.

The speaker's mother, meanwhile was a councillor for women, among other posts. She is now the chairperson of the health management committee and treasurer St Paul Mbulamuti SS, among others.

They are also dedicated members of the Anglican Church. George says he used his pension to build St Matthew Kiige COU at his parents' village as a way to thank God for what he has given him.