Hussein Bogere
23 March 2008
opinion
I went to Muwanga, and he quarrelled with me. He said: you members of the Opposition, DP, you are supporters of Museveni. Muwanga spent 30 minutes quarrelling. Then I told him: I am in Parliament, don't ask me what goes on in the jungle. You are the ones who are fighting in the jungle - Ssebaana
It was 1967. At that time I was 32 years old. News came. It was the minister of finance, Kalule Settala. He rang me and told me: we are here in Cabinet; somebody has raised your name nominating you for the East African Legislative Assembly.
I said: what is this? He said: it is an assembly for the countries of East Africa and Uganda will provide nine members. Ditto Kenya and Tanzania. I said: what is this?
He asked: would you be willing to serve? I said: yes, I will be very willing to serve if nominated but even if I am not nominated, the fact that my name has come this far, I am very grateful for that. One hour later, he rang again.
He said: you have been appointed, you are a member of the EALA. It was a Friday. He said: on Monday you have got a meeting of the Assembly in Dar es Salaam. Will you go to the President's Office to pick up your documents and air ticket to travel to Dar es Salaam? I said: fine.
So I went. Nine of us went and it was a very good time for me because I have always believed in East Africanness. I was quite [interested] in economic issues because the East African Community at that time had four parastatals.
We had the East African Airways, East African Railways, East African Posts and Telecommunications and the East African Transport Systems. All those were independent corporations of East Africa and their budgets were discussed by the EAC and passed by the EALA. They were reporting to the EALA. So, I took a lot of interest in those.
At that time I was also holding my post as general manager of National Insurance Corporation or NIC. [Being EALA member] was not a full time job because we would meet for two weeks in Dar es Salaam, then after a few months you meet again for two weeks in Nairobi. We used to have about four meetings in a year. While there, I sat on many committees one of which was Public Accounts Committee. I was chairman of that.
There was also a special select committee on East African Airways because at that time there were a lot of malpractices in the East African Airways. I was then chairman of that and it took me to many places in East Africa. That time East African Airways was serving many towns in Tanzania, Kenya and in Uganda. I made a report which was much appreciated and was almost being implemented when the Community broke up - we made the report in 1974 or 1975 then in 1977 the Community broke up.
It broke up, in my opinion, because [Tanzanian President Julius] Nyerere said 'I will never sit on the same table with Amin'. We pleaded with Nyerere that this attitude was detrimental because one of the organs of EAC was the heads of state meeting - we used to call it the Authority.
The Authority was composed of the three heads of state. Things continued like that because the Authority has to approve the budget of the Community, it had to discuss a lot of issues about the Community and Nyerere had said he would never sit on the same table with Amin.
He kept that [position] although we pleaded with him that his deputy, at that time a man called [Sheikh Abeid] Karume [should stand in for him]. He was a Muslim like Amin. We said: if you cannot sit, at least let your deputy come and sit in your place. He again rejected the compromise. So the Community died because of that reason; but also because in Kenya there was a man called [Charles] Njonjo, a minister.
He didn't like Tanzania because it was a socialist state and he was very influential during the days of [Jomo] Kenyatta.
Although there are attempts to revive [the Community], it will never come to the same stage as it was.
At that time, these corporations were working very well and there was a cadre of people who were truly East African civil servants: people who would work here [in Kampala] today, next day they are transferred to Dar es Salaam, and the day after to Nairobi, working for the corporation. That can never happen again. I don't see it because we cannot rebuild.
When the Community collapsed, we got Uganda Airlines, Air Tanzania, Kenya Airways. These cannot surrender their sovereignty any more. In Uganda, Uganda Airlines failed, but Kenya Airways is doing very well. I also think that Air Tanzania is doing well.
I served two terms, the first 1967-1972, then 1972-1977. At some point or other I served with people like Roger Mukasa - he used to be the chairman of the Coffee Marketing Board. There was Elifaz Ntende, the chairman of Lint Marketing Board; there was a man called Ben Emo from Lango. There was another man called Nyeko from Gulu; another man called Yiga from West Nile.
There was also Prof. Ssenteza Kajubi, and Frank Mutagubya. There was a fellow from Mbarara who I don't see any more. He was a lawyer. The appointing authority was Cabinet and it used its discretion.
As I told you, Nyeko was from Gulu, Emo from Lango, Yiga from West Nile, there was me, Ntende was from Busoga, Roger Mukasa was from Buganda, Tibamanya was from the western region as well as [George] Kihuguru who used to be [dean of students] at Makerere and myself. So I think they were trying to satisfy the regional balance.
***
I married in 1966. My wife Christine is from a family of a man called Michael Lwanga who used to be the Kabaka's Ggombolola chief, Omukulu w'Ekibuga in Kampala, a very powerful man.
We met at a friend's place. I had just come back from the United States in 1963. I was a quiet young man determined to settle down quickly.
I wanted to start a family quickly. So I met this young woman. She was a teacher in Mengo. Immediately after we met, she got a Commonwealth scholarship to go and study in Australia. Later on I got a scholarship to go and study insurance in Switzerland, so we were not in Uganda.
But later on we came back and got married in 1966. We had children immediately after our marriage. Our first born [came] in 1967, then another in 1968, another in 1970, and another in 1973. We had a young family and [yet] I was all the time leaving her to go to Nairobi, everywhere.
During those trying periods of Amin when there were no essential commodities, she was staying alone for at least two weeks or a month, then I would come back, then go away.
My children are Joseph Kizito, who works with the World Bank in Washington, D.C.; Joyce Kajoba is a pharmacist based in the UK; Jennifer Kizito and Basiima Kizito are both engineers working in the UK.
***
Before the break up of the Community, Amin had decided that he was to give all top positions to Muslims. So when I was in Nairobi in 1976, my position [of general manager NIC] was given to someone else.
I would not have minded that but then they threatened me with imprisonment and people warned me that I should not come back yet. So I stayed in Nairobi for one year. While there, I started my insurance brokerage business with some Kenyans. In 1977, I came back here. There was no job for me but I had some insurance knowledge with me.
Fortunately, there was an Italian who was an insurance broker here. He was not pleased with the regime of Amin. So he wanted to sell. I went to the bank, borrowed money and bought his company F. Longoroni. At that time the insurance business was difficult but we were making some ends meet.
In 1979, when Amin was about to be toppled, the minister of finance, who was in charge of NIC, invited me and asked: would you like your job back? I said: no, you have messed it up. Then he came to me a second time, third, fourth, fifth and I said: no.
But the sixth time I was with my neighbour, James Mulwana, in Kansanga. He said: they have asked you to come and help us, but you have refused. I said: yes, I have refused because you have messed things up. I left the corporation in good financial shape, all the money has been used, and I don't want to be involved in that thing anymore.
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