ROSE MUTONYI MASAABA is the Bubulo West MP and chairperson of the Foreign Affairs committee of parliament.

A trained teacher, Mutonyi once served as counsel and accounting officer at Uganda’s foreign missions in New Delhi and Dar es Salaam, she told Josephine Namuloki about her life as a diplomat.

My name is Rose Mutonyi Masaaba. I hail from Mbale district. I sat my Primary Leaving Examinations from Watakhuna Primary School in 1962. By then, I was in primary six.

You know during those days you could sit PLE in P6 and then you go to junior for two years. So, I went to Nyondo Junior Secondary School from 1963 to 1964 and then I joined St Mary’s Namagunga in 1965. I left Namagunga in May, 1966 after one and a half years because my father could not afford the school. Then they took me to St Ursula’s Teacher Training College.

These days they have combined the boys’ wing and the girls’ wing and the whole of it now is called St John Bosco Primary Teachers’ College.  From there, I went to start teaching and I was selected to remain at Nyondo demonstration school when I completed the course in 1968. I taught in this school up to 1970 before I went to Muyembe girls’ school where I taught for only one year and one term.

INSPIRATION TO TEACH

Originally, I was not interested in teaching. I was very shy and I feared to stand in front of children and talk. Now I am very talkative just because I became a teacher and now I am a politician.

But going to college, as I said earlier, was because I could not complete secondary school. My father did not have  money. He even had to sell a banana plantation to raise the Shs 200 to pay in TTC. And even my TTC was a problem.

My second year was okay because my father had sold a banana plantation but somewhere in year-three, my father failed to raise all the money. So, my brother, who is now a retired policeman, John Mwalye, took over and paid school fees for third term in year three and entire year four.

My sister, the late Florence, supplemented a little until I completed my college education. In 1972, I joined Shimoni Teachers College here in Kampala. I was in Shimoni for two years and when I completed, I started teaching in Nabuyonga primary school in Mbale from 1974 to 1975. In 1976, I went to Gangama primary school.

From Gangama, I also did another entry exam to a grade IV teachers’ course, which was for teacher training, and at that time it was at the National Institute of Education in Makerere University. A course was for three years ending with a diploma in teacher education. After National Institute of Education, I went to teach in Lady Irene teachers’ college, Ndejje, in Luweero district now.

I don’t know what has happened to it now; I think it was phased out. I taught there and in December 1982, I did a mature entry exam. In 1983, I started a course for my first degree up to 1986. In 1987, after completion, I became deputy principal in Busuubizi teachers’ college, Mityana district. 

From there, I went to Nazigo teachers’ college in 1989 as a principal. And in 1995, I enrolled for a master’s degree in education, administration and planning and completed in 1997, and I thank government for sponsoring me. You know all these courses were sponsored by government up to masters’.

I thank God because my family was poor and I managed to get sponsorship from government. So, I completed my master’s degree in 1997 and graduated in 1998. Meanwhile, by the time I completed and graduated with the master’s degree, I had been appointed a resident district commissioner. I served in Mpigi and Masaka.

In 2002, I left Masaka and I was sent to the Ugandan mission in India (New Delhi), not as ambassador but I was appointed as a counsellor and accounting officer.

In 2007, I was transferred to Dar es Salaam to serve in the same position up to 2010 when I resigned to join politics in 2011 because I felt I was growing too old to remain out of the country. I also felt that people of Manafwa needed my input at least to serve them for a while before God calls me.

SERVING ABROAD

It was an exposure and it enabled me meet different diplomats and dignitaries. It is not easy but you adjust and adapt to the situation there. For example, in India even in Dar es Salaam, it was very, very hot.

In office you use air conditioning, home AC, even when you enter a car, you use AC. There are only three months where you experience good weather. Then abruptly it turns to winter – I had never experienced what winter was like until I was in India.

Dar es Salaam was hot too! But I knew I was serving my country outside, dealing with diplomats where you don’t have to make noise or complain. I am a teacher professionally and I served for 27 years.

Some people don’t know where I came from but I have a very long experience in teaching and I love my profession so much. It is the one that has enabled me go through all this, even the job of RDC, it could not have been easy if I had not been exposed as a teacher.

REPRESENTING UGANDA

We had to go and lobby for investors and tourists. Indians are not very good tourists but at least we could get some but we lobbied for industries and you can see that many Indians have come here.

Previously, Indians feared to come back to Uganda after the experience of 1972 but with our diplomatic relations, the Indians felt comfortable, they came back, and they are still coming back in big numbers to help Uganda. We also supervised or monitored our students who were on courses outside.

We had to deal with their welfare and they feel happy when they know at least there is somebody. This is one of the responsibilities I was carrying out as a counsellor. I dealt a lot with Ugandan students, and they felt comfortable.

AMBASSADORIAL DREAM?

Never, I never even dreamt that I would become a teacher. My life, my thinking, my vision was always in becoming a doctor and I can assure you in Namagunga I was doing very well in sciences but because my course was cut short, now adjusting to education was a problem and I used to fear to stand in front of people, even children, to talk.

But after training and through first school practice, second practice, you start gaining confidence. So, I never dreamt that I would become a diplomat, never, or become a member of parliament. I didn’t even know what MPs were doing.

When the president appointed me RDC, I almost refused because I didn’t know what they do. I didn’t want to leave teaching but people advised me that when you are RDC, you are near the president; he sends you to do this and that and you know you are the one to give him reports about that district. I said eeh, so it is a big thing!

I was still a bit shy. I was not used to politics but here I am! After exposure as RDC, it made me gain experience that I could stand and campaign and even win an election.

CHALLENGES ABROAD

The biggest challenge was lack of funds. Then there is a problem of the civil servants who say they are the diplomats. Of course they also complain about arrogant political-appointees. But I don’t think I behaved like that because having been a teacher, I already knew how to handle certain situations.

Maybe the civil servants are right to say that we brag. But generally, the challenges which are still on are shortage of funds. The Foreign Affairs ministry is not taken as a priority because maybe government and the ministry of Finance think that it is a consuming ministry and yet Foreign Affairs lobbies and persuades. So, ministry of Finance officials judge or rate Foreign Affairs badly and it is a perennial challenge.

The officers there cannot take their children to live with them because they cannot afford school fees there. Like in India, the schools that teach in English are international schools where the British, Americans and whatever take their children.

The schools in India teach in Hindi and if you take your children there, they will not even know what to do or what to say; they cannot learn under such circumstances. I took my grandson and I had to suffer.

There was one primary school, which was teaching partially English and Hindi, but my grandson was very first in learning Hindi because he was associating with other children where we were living and he managed to cope for the two years that I kept him there. But all the same, it was not good.

Living as a diplomat, you are expected to rent a good house, but there are limits on how much you are supposed to pay for your accommodation. The diplomats outside also suffer with separation from their families.

For me who went when I didn’t have a husband, I was better off; but I am speaking on behalf of other diplomats who have their families. She has a husband, he has a wife but they are separated and it has always caused problems, conflicts because of rumors. Your wife outside Uganda is moving out with other men and your husband back home in Uganda is busy with other women and vice-visa.

Those problems are too many in the Foreign Service yet I don’t think they can do much. I wish they could afford to give the diplomats the fees for their children so that at least, especially women, they are near their children.

Diplomats who move with their spouses are not entitled for some allowance, except the ambassador. For the ambassador, the spouse gets something little but other diplomats’ spouses get nothing. They are, therefore, forced to leave them behind. And spouses cannot leave their jobs back in Uganda and join the diplomat outside when they are not assured of a job or allowance.

In summary, the challenges in Foreign Service include lack of funds, poor infrastructure which I have been talking about in the foreign affairs committee, school fees for children, and separation of families which has affected many marriages.
            
POLITICS

I was leaving India when Manafwa district was created in 2006. People persuaded me to come and contest but I said I didn’t want to venture into politics; after all, I didn’t even have the money and I felt I was not ready.

But when it came to 2010 preparing for 2011, still they continued exerting pressure on me until I resigned.

ACHIEVEMENTS

Maybe I helped the students. You know when you are not an ambassador, you work as a team but of course credit goes to the ambassador.

So, as an officer, I counseled my students and I tried, for example in India, to work on the interior even in Tanzania we worked on beautifying the interior to improve on the chanceries – the office blocks.

When we left India, they changed the premises because they had taken long without paying rent for that building; the owner repossessed it and they had to find another accommodation for the chancery.

ON POLITICAL APPOINTMENTS

For me government is doing its job of posting ambassadors and of course when you post ambassadors, they must be people who will sell your government.

They have to sell the government because why should government send somebody who is going to give negative comments to the foreign country?

He must be somebody well versed with government proceedings, policies and with our laws. What I know is that there is also pressure from the career diplomats, those who have come up through the system, and I also support that.

That at least somebody like me who grew up as a primary school teacher, went up to deputy principal and then principal of the TTC; they would like to see their dreams come true because some of the ambassadors went through interviews and they would also like to reach what we call in psychology self-actualization.

Having reached the level of the ambassador, they also would wish to have a feel of what it means to be head of mission.  We have recommended as a parliamentary committee of foreign affairs that those career diplomats should be reconsidered.

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGE

We have a lot of resources which some countries don’t have. Countries like those in Asia, for example China, they don’t have much but they know how to turn our raw materials into finished goods and they take advantage of our [backwardness] despite the fact that we have a lot of resources.

I think for us we can enjoy by associating ourselves with people who can help us manufacture products out of our raw materials and then we sell them as finished products of a high standard, not like what we see the Chinese producing and selling to Ugandans. By the way, the Chinese think Ugandans cannot afford very expensive things; when you go to America, Europe, you will find very good quality Chinese products.

So, I think we should relate ourselves with countries that can bring skills and at the same time help us to produce goods out of our raw materials. We are spending so much in imports yet we do not have anything we are selling outside. We don’t have enough and if we do we are selling raw materials like coffee, hides, and tea.

The problem is, we don’t have the technology; neither do we have the capacity to do that, but in diplomatic circles, when we go out to win over investors, ours should be bringing people here who can help us turn our raw materials into finished products.

FINAL WORD

Well, I can say I partially enjoyed although I suffered with the heat and I also interfaced with the diplomats. I felt proud to represent our country outside although I resigned to serve my country in another capacity.
Look out for another engaging interview in this series next Friday