By John V Sserwaniko
Students, staff and stakeholders of YMCA Comprehensive Institute (YCI) Wandegeya have this Thursday morning converged to see off their Governing Chairman Dr. Joseph Robert Jjumba who died last Wednesday.
YCI Principal Dr. Herbert Mukasa eulogizes his boss Dr. Joseph Robert Jjumba. He was with him in the Lisbon hotel room as he breathed his last and his eulogy moved many to tears. Mukasa himself had to be supported off the microphone as he broke down wailing endlessly just moments into his speech. They had been extremely close.
It was sudden as Jjumba, who was part of the Ugandan delegation at the just-concluded IASIA Conference in Lisbon Portugal, collapsed and died in his hotel room while there as his friends waited for him to join them for breakfast before proceeding to the day’s sessions.
It was a tearful moment for everyone as the clergy, old friends, service providers, staff, student leaders and relatives eulogized the man they knew and closely associated with as head YMCA. YMCA Comprehensive Institute (YCI) Wandegeya Principal Herbert Mukasa, who was like a twin brother to Jjumba, struggled to relive his boss’ final moments at the hotel.
“He always woke up earlier and would come to my room to wake me up but on this day it was different. I kept wondering what was happening and he later came to my room and said I’m not feeling well please get me a doctor,” a wailing Dr. Mukasa told mourners in the YMCA Basketball Court. Jjumba returned to his room as he waited for the doctor but a deeply perturbed Mukasa followed him there and realized his health was deteriorating at a rapid speed.
He single-handedly struggled to carry him to his room and rested him on his bed as they waited for the medical help, Mukasa had sent for through the hotel management. The hospital to which they wanted to rush him wasn’t very far and Mukasa says as he waited for the special hire they had sent for, someone advised it had to be an ambulance given the frail state Dr. Jjumba was rapidly deteriorating into.
As he waited, Mukasa rang Dr. Nkata and the deceased’s wife (Carol Namukwaya Jjumba) back home on realizing what he thought was a simple situation was rapidly deteriorating. But Dr. Jjumba breathed his last before he could be evacuated to the hospital. He succumbed to cardiac arrest; that is the official revelation by the medical teams back in Europe/Portugal where he died from.
Jjumba, who worked for YMCA for more than 25 years without break, had a history of hypertension but (through a combination of personal discipline and strict adherence to medical advice) he was always managing well that condition. He always took his medication as required and checked out with his doctor whenever he felt unwell. Thus, there was never anything to worry about.
This is why his death took many by surprise and many couldn’t stop wailing during the requiem send off service at the YMCA Wandegeya campus which had been his place of work since October 1994. The fateful Lisbon Portugal trip is something Jjumba kept talking about to some friends in ways Dr. Kanyesigye, the head of Nsamizi Institute, says amounted to premonition.
Kanyesigye, a fellow educationist, who wasn’t in time enough to eulogize his friend at the Wandegeya gathering, spoke to some people privately and says on all the occasions he met or spoke to him before his death, Dr. Jjumba repeatedly said: “I’m going to Portugal; I will be going to Portugal. Did I tell you about it already?” Kanyesigye wonders why Jjumba, who always shared travel plans with him, was never emphatic about the other countries he visited.
LAST MOMENTS
The Saturday before flying out on Sunday Jjumba attended a long YMCA NEC meeting which was chaired by his mentor, supervisor and Mengo neighbor Dr. James Nkata. The two had known each for decades with Nkata seeing Jjumba grow from a mere class room teacher at Trinity College Nabbingo to the larger than life international YMCA figure he had grown into.
After that Saturday meeting (that would be his last day at office), Jjumba summoned his secretary Josephine and ensured all the necessary work pending his signature had been cleared out. That NEC meeting, for which he was secretary, discussed many things including reflecting on the new Strategic Plan (2017-2022) for YMCA. Before leaving office to return home to Mengo to prepare for the Lisbon trip, Jjumba hosted a team of pastors who he introduced to colleagues at office as very good friends.
He cracked jokes and had long conversation with them. He later released his secretary to go home saying ‘it’s okay I’m still with my friends I will lock the office after.” The NEC meeting gave the YMCA Secretariat, which he headed, assignments to accomplish and in the very final communication Jjumba told his secretary (shortly before the visitors came in) “the year is ending as you see; this is August now and we must accomplish a lot of things within this year.” This was in reference to the NEC assignments that he was always famous for executing to completion ahead of time.
LIBERAL NRM DIEHARD
As ex-MP Mike Sebalu/day’s MC, who grew up with Jjumba in Kyengera, remarked the deceased was a staunch NRM supporter but that never prevented him from appreciating people on merit. Sebalu says despite being NRM, Jjumba worked with everybody and liked judging people basing on their competence and capacity to deliver. Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago’s experience corroborates this about Dr. Jjumba.
Despite being DP/opposition, Dr. Jjumba insisted Lukwago was very brilliant as a young idealistic lawyer fresh from the University and hired him to be his lawyer. Dr. Jjumba and his YMCA institutions was actually the first big name client Lukwago had when he had freshly just graduated and established his own Legal practice. Jjumba stayed course and closely related with Lukwago up to his last day. Lukwago says, notwithstanding political differences, he has lost a mentor who selflessly reached out to everyone.
Jjumba is survived by widow Carol Namukwaya and 4 sons all of whom Sebalu says are educated up to master’s degree level and are gainfully employed. One (2nd born David Sentongo) is missing his burial on Saturday in Kyengera because he is completing his studies abroad. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulengera2040@gmail.com).
