For their 82nd and 85th birthday respectively, the brothers opted to construct a church in their home village, Kamaggwa near Kalisizo in present-day Kyotera district.

I later discovered his resourcefulness when, as a journalist writing about the history of the Catholic Church in Uganda, and in 2013 as Masaka geared up for centenary celebrations of indigenous African priesthood, Msgr Kyabukasa was the point of reference.

While priests in the Catholic Church are routinely transferred, for 56 years Kyabukasa remained at Bukalasa Minor Seminary as a formator of priests.

He was posted to the seminary in 1965, and the only time he was not at Bukalasa was in 1968 to 1970 when he was sent to Oxford University to do a Bachelor of Arts (History), making him an accomplished teacher of  History in addition to Latin and English. Because of his long stay at Bukalasa, he had been nicknamed “Kyabukalasa” (Bukalasa’s gift).

“The lawns of Bukalasa shall never be the same again; for a man who has literally stepped on every inch of the same has rested,” the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, Mathias Mpuuga said in his eulogy of the priest.

His former students speak of Kyabukasa as a disciplinarian who, once as acting rector, expelled an entire class for acting against the established rules at the seminary.

“He used to fold his hands at the back while walking… he didn’t have to mention that he was annoyed; you would simply see him scratching his head or trying to bite his fingernails. This applied to everyone including fellow priests. The moment we saw him scratching his head, we concluded someone had messed up,” said Elvis Kintu Nsonyi, a former Bukalasa Minor Seminary student.

His former students including Bishop Serverus Jjumba of Masaka diocese also remember him as a perfectionist and a good timekeeper, who during his lessons could stop speaking mid-word once the bell went off.

EDUCATION REFORM

According to Rev Fr Francis Sales Mugerwa, the rector at the seminary, Kyabukasa died a sad man, specifically unhappy with Uganda’s education system that he saw as only intended to prepare learners to pass exams as opposed to giving them life skills.

He was also unhappy with the continued closure of schools that he believed is going to create a crisis in the country. The chairperson of the Uganda Episcopal Conference, Bishop Anthony Zziwa, seized the opportunity to speak against the proposal to scrap the teaching of Latin.

“In all our [Catholic Church] minor seminaries, we teach Latin because of its importance in the church. Reviewing the curriculum is welcome, but please, leave Latin,” the Kiyinda- Mityana bishop said.

DEATH

In March 2016, Kyabukasa suffered a mild stroke, which later subjected him to episodes of drop attacks, the most severe one being on May 22 when he fell off his bed deep in the night.

“We realised that there was a problem when he failed to turn up for the early morning mass. He became weak, which forced the seminary’s administration to agree to his transfer to a relative’s residence for personalised care,” Fr Mugerwa said.

On August 23, he was admitted to Kitovu hospital and was discharged after three weeks but his condition deteriorated on September 22 and was rushed to Villa Maria hospital where he died on October 6.

LEGACY

He was the last born in Cosma Kyamera and Tereza Namayanja’s family. At the age of 10, his parents enrolled him at an elementary school at Manyama and Kabuwoko for catechumenal studies.

In 1944, walking in the footsteps of his elder brother Wamala, Kyabukasa enrolled at Bukalasa Minor Seminary for his priestly formation studies before joining Katigondo Major Seminary, seven years later in 1951, for philosophical and theological studies.

On December 14, 1958, he was ordained a deacon and was a year later, on December 6, 1959, elevated to priesthood.
Following his ordination as a priest, he was posted to Nkoni parish as a curate.

The following year, he enrolled at Makerere University for a postgraduate diploma in Education and after his graduation in 1962, he was posted to St Henry’s College Kitovu as a teacher and chaplain.

In 1965, he was transferred to Bukalasa Minor Seminary as a teacher but three years later, was sent to Oxford University for a degree in History.

He returned to Uganda in 1971 to resume his teaching roles at Bukalasa where he twice served at acting rector in 1974 to 1976 and in 1980 to 1982. By the time of his death, he was boasting of having trained hundreds of priests, notably Bishop Jjumba of Masaka and Bishop Zziwa of Kiyinda-Mityana.

Bishop Zziwa did not go through Bukalasa but was taught by Kyabukasa the art of public speaking at the neighbouring Katigondo Major Seminary. 

The 95-year-old frail Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala, now rarely seen in public, made the long trip to the cemetery in Bukalasa, to bid farewell to his beloved brother.

When Wamala was in 1992 threatened with death by an assailant that accessed his residence in Lubaga, it was to Kyabukasa that the cardinal penned his ‘last’ letter. The assailant, Said Bbongo, did not carry out his threat. Bishop Jjumba led mass at the function that drew many from the Church, Parliament and the faithful.