By Ruth Mirembe
On Monday, hundreds of mourners gathered at Bishop David Kiganda’s Christianity Focus Center Church in Kisenyi for a prayer service that was organized to celebrate the memory of Mzee Dallen Kizito Mukalazi who was the owner and founder of the Hormisdallen Group of Schools which has campuses in Bweyogerere, Kamwokya, Kyebando and Gayaza. They are all primary private schools.
Mukalazi, who battled illness for some time, was a devout Born Again Christian and a member of Kiganda’s CFC. Pastor Wilson Bugembe was one of the mourners and was mandated by Kiganda and the family to say something during the church service.
Bugembe commended Mukalazi for having been a rich man who truly loved God and loyally practiced Christianity unlike many rich people in Uganda who he faulted for disregarding God once they materially succeed. Bugembe said there were indicators from the speeches of the children, the widow Ritah and friends that Mukalazi had indeed gone to heaven because he truly was a Christian.
He called on the rest of the people in Uganda to truly accept salvation because it’s the only way to be assured of eternity in the life after this earthly one. Bugembe said he knows part of the reason why many people are generally not interested in frequently going to church anymore (beyond Christmas and going for prayers to send off a loved one) is partly because of the ungodly ways in which some of the Church Ministers, including pastors, behave while clearly contradicting Biblical scriptures and generally Christian settings.
Bugembe implored Christians to understand that salvation is a relationship between them and Christ and ignore the pastors’ individual inadequacies and return to Church because there can never be any better place for the afflicted to visit or go to apart from the Church.
He said the shortcomings of individual pastors can’t be an excuse for anyone to not frequently go to church and referenced to the late Mukalazi, whose widow Ritah had, in an earlier speech, narrated how he always struggled to go pray at Church and Seguku-based prayer mountain amidst sickness, even when care givers felt he was too weak for that.
Fellow private education institutions owners commended Mukalazi for the selflessness with which he mentored many of them, personally having been a pioneer who founded and started his private school business in Uganda, along with the likes of Prof Lawrence Mukiibi, as early as 1986. He was also praised for loving his king and always supporting Buganda kingdom activities. The children promised to remain active Christians like their father was and promised to always protect his legacy.
The widow thanked Kiganda for being a good spiritual father to her fallen husband, who originally was a staunch Catholic who converted to the born again faith after listening to the CDs Kiganda used to produce containing his evangelization messages. It was during those days of the late 2000s when Kiganda didn’t yet own his own Kingdom media (radio and TV) and used to broadcast his pre-recorded messages on Peter Sematimba’s Super fm.
The widow also got overcome by emotions and broke down wailing, in her eulogy, as she reiterated Kiganda’s message calling on whoever Mukalazi could have wronged during his life time to forgive him. The staff and managers of Kingdom media also spoke and thanked God for the generous advertiser Mzee Mukalazi was to the extent that he annually used to invest up to Shs2bn into purchase of airtime to advertise his schools and other businesses.
Kiganda implored the children to remain members of the Church and even showed them the corner which used to be Mzee Mukalazi’s seat and assured them that was now going to be their corner every moment there is a prayer service at his CFC Church. He assigned one of the church elders to get the children’s phone numbers and keep reminding them to come to church and join their mum Nalongo Ritah (who is already a Church member) in filling up the vacuum Mzee Mukalazi’s death had inflicted onto his church Ministry. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
