Life is a wily conundrum. Within its seeming bustle stalks an unwelcome phenomenon we call death.
By the harshness and finality of this said death, we are once again confronted with a sad reality. Jack Maumbe Mukhwana, with whom we were accustomed to share every weal and woe of living, is now no more.
I went to visit Maumbe at his village home on February 26. In January, he had been admitted at Mount Elgon hospital while I was in Mulago hospital. We maintained regular phone conversations promising each other that whoever came out of the hospital bed first would visit the other.
Despite his being discharged earlier, he remained weak. It, therefore, became my turn to visit him because I was in better condition. Victor Wanyoto and I were led to see him in his bedroom. He greeted us from his bed chattily. He informed us that he was dying as he had no money to meet any cost of medical upkeep.
I got a bit disconcerted by his easy reference to death. I deliberately moved the conversation from the horrifying subject to what could be done about his life. In the course of this discussion, he accepted our suggestions on the way forward.
I tried to call the prime minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, on his private line. He is one of the few top officials in government whom I trusted could take urgent calls. He was officiating at a function in Arua.
But he called me back shortly. He offered that Maumbe be taken to Nakasero hospital and arranged for an ambulance to come for him. He said the NRM could not fail to find money for Maumbe’s life.
Last Monday morning, I got the distressing news. Maumbe died on the way to Nakasero. With his death, a whole period of our association with him also became closed.
I first met Maumbe after the debacles of the UPC delegates’ conference of Gulu in 1964 which we, representing Bukedi district, walked away from in protest.
A section of the UPC youths from Bugisu, organized by Dani Nabudere, Natolo Masaba, Kisolo Makanya, Maumbe Mukhwana and others, remained adamant and vociferous over the same Gulu events after the stormy conference. We happily joined to work together.
By then, Maumbe was a dashing young man. He was driving a diesel Mercedes Benz car. His eagerness to be part of this struggle enabled him to put all his resources, car, house and time at the disposal of our activities.
We would flock from across Uganda to meet frequently in Mbale, making his house in Maluku full of people, eating all the food in the house or occupying every room, bed, chair or crevice for sleeping. The overflow would be transferred to Kisolo Makanya’s place, Nabudere’s house at Gowers avenue or stream in the night to Natolo Masaba’s Bududa village home.
The hive of these activities drew the wrath of the UPC hierarchy. Maumbe was one amongst those summarily announced expelled from the party. He became economically harassed and strangled by the regime.
This did not deter his resolve and continued association with us. It only deepened it. The network against the UPC found home in Maumbe’s resilience, tightening the noose around the neck of the regime.
After Obote lost power to Idi Amin, we got involved in identifying and recruiting operatives for clandestine military training. As we prepared an intake which included younger people such as Charles Chemasuet of Kapchorwa, Ouma Musoni then a teacher in Bufumbo, Mbale and others, I asked Maumbe, who was senior to me in age, whether he could manage to go.
He enthusiastically left all his family responsibilities and went to train, where he met Yoweri Museveni and many others. When he came back, he camouflaged as a driver for Natolo Masaba while working on many Front for National Salvation (Fronasa) missions.
This is when his house was raided by the Idi Amin military. He escaped narrowly, wearing an incongruous and ill-fitting gomesi lent to him by my wife. This started a new frontier of exile in Tanzania.
Upon the assumption of power by the UNLF after the Moshi conference, he served as a member of the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) National Consultative Council.
The 1980 elections saw him participate as a parliamentary contestant for UPM. With the assumption of power by the UPC-Obote II, he was picked up and detained in Luzira all the years Obote was in power.
He has lived a life of struggle without attention to himself. The property of his life is measured only in disruption of his family duties and the sacrifices he made for all of us, rather than in any of the things he has left for his children and family.
As we say farewell to him, it is only appropriate that those who value his time should extend a hand and hoist his example high in the expectation that what he sought in his life must come to fruition.
The author is the publicity secretary of the NRM historical leaders’ forum.
