Eng Christopher Kasozi lived twice

OPINION

The period July/August and then October 1975 was arguably the highest point in the well-told career of then Ugandan President, General Idi Amin. It was also unquestionably the lowest for one of the country's most senior technocrats.

Idi Amin was an incessant seeker of recognition, principally from the mighty (witness the restaging, before African leaders, of his wedding to Sarah Kyolaba, followed, a little later, by the unprecedented address, in Luganda, to the UN General Assembly on October 1, 1975). And also, the lowly (at my primary school that year, arriving with a swagger, he boasted to us, schoolchildren, how he had driven from Jinja to Budo in 30 minutes, too fast for his bodyguard to keep up — he was alone). Hosting the Organisation of African Unity Summit in Kampala, from July 28 to August 1, was, therefore, a high watermark for the showman President, what with the ostensibly prestigious title of OAU Chairman, which was to avail the General Assembly pulpit, to go with it.

With the OAU summit Uganda, therefore, could not afford any hiccups. Anxiety levels were palpable, government officials pulling and tugging to ascertain that the conference went on without a hitch: cleaning Kampala, securing borders, drilling schoolchildren in parade gymnastics, expelling beggars, stopping at nothing to keep dozens of African leaders happy (nobody seems to have told the Nigerian military, who overthrew General Yakubu Gowon — Go On With Our Nigeria — while he was in Uganda). For Eng. Christopher Kasozi Kaya, the task was a simple one: ensure that there was adequate and uninterrupted water supply at all key venues. 

By 1975, the effects of the disastrous Economic War, declared by Amin in 1972, had begun to kick in, with scarcities of not only "essential goods" like soap, sugar and cooking oil, but also spare parts for motor vehicles and industrial machinery. 

Knowing the frequency of breakdown of pumps and other equipment at the National Water & Sewerage Corporation (NWSC), Kasozi decided to hedge his bets. 

The systems at the Gaba station were broken and NWSC decided to ferry water in trucks (bowsers) and fill Nakasero's Gunhill Tank (adjacent to State House and the Sheraton) that would supply the key conference venues — Nile Mansions (Serena Hotel today), International Conference Centre and International Hotel (Sheraton Hotel) — to ensure an uninterrupted flow. A jumpy and suspicious President presumed that Kasozi was sabotaging the conference and promptly fired him.

This was a time when a number of public servants lost their lives on account of professional decisions that would end up rubbing powerful individuals the wrong way. Joseph Mubiru, the former Governor of the Bank of Uganda and Kasozi's former collegemate at Trivandrum University in India in the 1950s, had been abducted and presumably murdered by state agents in September 1972, five days before another senior technocrat, Chief Justice Benedicto Kiwanuka, disappeared forever in similar circumstances, faulted for taking professional positions on national matters. Frank Kalimuzo, the Vice-Chancellor of Makerere University, had also been murdered following abduction, so the trend was evident, and the dread would have been tangible.

In 1965, Kasozi had become the first Ugandan Engineer Manager of the Kampala & District Water Board, taking over from a departing British expatriate. In 1973, when NWSC was formed, he became founding Managing Director.  

Kasozi was among a clutch of young technocrats who would take over governance and management, and at Trivandrum University in South India, his six years (1954-1964) studying engineering were to overlap with those of other Ugandan students, like the perennial Ali Kirunda Kivejinja, Akbar Adoko Nekyon (first Ugandan minister of Information), Mubiru (first Governor of BOU), Wilson Kityo (Chief Magistrate) and Godfrey Lule (Attorney General). Kasozi would recall a relentless diet of rice of his days in India: rice for breakfast; rice at lunch; rice for dinner, all served with hot piri piri, in dubious nutrition rather like some communities in Uganda do eat bananas — bogoya, gonja, matooke, ndizi, as well as banana beer all year round; or those that do unremittingly consume maize in the form of porridge, popcorn for breakfast, cornflakes, posho/ugali, roast-on-the-cob, and in a potent gin!

And so Kasozi's 1975 brush with the mercurial President Amin could have been fateful. 

As it were, upon dismissal for trying to ensure a flawless and flowing OAU summit, Kasozi chose the quiet life, retreating into private practice with his own firm and in service to the Church. In 1975 Kasozi was 45 years old, which was also just about the life expectancy for a Ugandan male — fate, divine or otherwise, had him survive both a natural death and potential execution at the hands of an insecure state terror machinery. 

His survival granted him a second lease on life, effectively doubling his span to the ripe old age of 90, at which he rested last month. It was a life well-lived.

Kasozi survived by his widow, Mary Kasozi Kaya, and children Paul Sebirumbi, Peter Segujja, Eva Nabawanda Semakula, Patrick Sebanwagi, Philip Seruwagi, and Phares Sekalala.

Eng. Christopher Kasozi Kaya was born on January 17, 1930, and he died on August 26, 2020. He studied at Aggrey Memorial, Kings College Budo and Trivandrum University.

He was the first Ugandan Manager, Kampala and District Water Board and first Managing Director National Water and Sewerage Corporation. He was first chairman Uganda Institute of Professional Engineers, He was fellow, Economic Development Institute of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Board of Governors, Mengo Hospital.