By John V Sserwaniko
The mood inside Sheraton Hotel’s Rwenzori Ball Room Friday afternoon was one of joy and reflection as friends, peers, development partner representatives, relatives and NPA staff gathered to see off the Dr. Wilberforce Kisamba Mugerwa who, as Executive Chairman, has steered the organization for the last 10 years into an era of great transformation. Kisamba, who had been many things before (including being Bamunanika MP, Minister, University don, researcher at MISR & international civil servant working with FAO in Addis), took on the NPA job at the prompting of President Museveni in 2008. He had just returned from an international assignment in Addis Ababa where he headed the International Food Policy Research Institute. From the speeches and testimonies given during the send-off public lecture at the Friday Sheraton event, it was time well spent as Kisamba is leaving NPA much better than he found it. Its profile has been raised and, at Kisamba’s insistence, its budget allocation by the Finance Ministry is much more than when Kisamba took charge. It’s a more outspoken institution and its leaders have always candidly told off floppy government bureaucrats betraying the President’s dream to transform Uganda into a middle level income country. Through the Certificate of Compliance (CoC) issued annually, Kisamba-led NPA has vocally been influencing budgeting process in Parliament as all accounting officers must obtain the Authority’s approval before MPs can appropriate money for them for the subsequent FY. This has enhanced MDAs’ awareness about and compliance with the National Development Plan (NDP II) which articulates Uganda’s development agenda. Yet that isn’t all. Staffing has grown from the mere 8 technical employees Kisamba inherited to 83 (including 62 technical & 21 support staff). Of these, 10 are PhD holders on whom the man from Bamunanika depended to end reliance on very expensive foreign consultants on whom NPA used to spend billions to spearhead any GoU planning whenever the Authority was required to do so. Colleagues in cabinet, where Museveni (in consultation with John Mitala) permitted Kisamba to sit as ex-officio because of his resourcefulness, confirmed the expertise at Kisamba-led NPA when it came to reviving Uganda Airlines. “It’s this team that came up with the appraisal for the revival of Uganda Airlines and when I convinced my boss the President on the need to revive Uganda Airlines, some colleagues said otusse [you have killed us]. We have grown so much capacity inside NPA that even the external consultants hired ended up with an appraisal report that was exactly similar to what my internal NPA team had produced. Mind you, we did it without requiring any additional funding. These were staff doing their ordinary duty and we came up with that appraisal. They spent billions hiring external people and I wondered why they had to waste that money. It came to the same thing,” said Kisamba as he addressed an enthusiastic audience at Sheraton where he delivered his lecture.
His submission ran through the historical evolution of development planning in this country, the major accomplishments of the last 10 years, challenges encountered and recommendations on what government must continue doing in order to finally accomplish the dream of middle income status that has so far remained elusive under NDP II which is ending in 2020. Kisamba also made very interesting frank comments about our nascent oil & gas sector clearly regretting leaving NPA before the oil dollars begin trickling in. He also made reference to NDP III and begged GoU to accord his successor (some say could be ex-Usuk MP Charles Olweny) more financial and moral support so that much more can be accomplished to transform Uganda. As he made this point, Kisamba addressed himself to some of the things that haven’t gone well in his 10 year tenure, an experience that should guide future government decisions. “NPA is a very strategic institution for the development of this country. In India, Mauritius & Singapore, my equivalent [as Planning Authority chairman] is at the level of Prime Minister. Yet in Uganda I report to a minister of state [David Bahati]. Can you imagine? The Minister of State reports to the Minister of Finance [Matia Kasaija] who reports to the Prime Minister,” Kisamba said. He regretted that this status quo not only demoralizes and lowers self-esteem of the NPA leadership, it also delays decision making as securing the necessary approvals takes long at the expense of development work the Authority is supposed to carry out. In a country where recruitment on order from above is the norm and order of the day, Kisamba always recruited on merit and always scared off those putting him on pressure on who to recruit to always put it in writing. He says this often scared them away. At the glamorous Sheraton event, many speakers spoke about the Kisamba they knew, experienced and related with in his 47 years of public service. The hall was full of young corporates who confessed being who they are today because of the generous mentoring Kisamba gave them. Speakers included (CSOs representative) Richard Sewakiryanga, PSFU’ Gideon Bagadawa, a UNDP representative, NPA BOD member Dr. Acer Godfrey Okot and NPA ED Dr. Joseph Muvawala who emotionally spoke about a man who has been his immediate supervisor. He submitted that the best way he is going to ensure Kisamba’s NPA contribution wasn’t in vain is by working even harder spearheading the country’s development agenda. Deputy Premier Kirunda Kivejinja, who Kisamba commended for being very supportive and appreciative of the NPA agenda, spoke about the young man he mentored over the years. Reflecting on the title for one of the many books Kisamba unveiled at the event (titled A Focused Journey), Kivejinja attributed Kisamba’s career success on the fact that he was always hardworking, disciplined and a focused person who never took anyone for granted. He also thanked Museveni for deploying Kisamba [at NPA] where he naturally belonged “because he [Kisamba] has always believed in approaching things in a planned way.”
PROF NSIBAMBI’S TAKE;
But former Prime Minister Apollo Nsibambi said much more in a key note address that preceded Kisamba’s long but very educative lecture that was delivered with a lot of humor by the retiring man from Kikonda village in Bamunanika Luwero district. Apparently Nsibambi knows much more than any other speaker at the event. He was the Warden of Mak’s New (now Nkrumah) Hall to which Kisamba was admitted as a resident fresher in 1968. It was Nsibambi who recommended Kisamba to become a non-resident student at a time it was thought to be prestigiously fashionable for one to reside in the Hall. It was prestigious for a village boy like Kisamba to join Makerere. However, the poverty at home diminished Kisamba’s appetite for the good life at campus. Nsibambi recalls that Kisamba, who nevertheless excelled academically to the amazement of all, was able to save all the non-resident “boom” he was given and built a decent house for his struggling mother in the village. He got married to Rebecca (an eminent wealthy scholar in her own right) immediately after campus. Nsibambi commended Kisamba’s humility to allow his wife to immediately go for Master’s degree in Nairobi and PhD in South Africa, something that condemned the fresh Makerere graduate to loneliness and cold nights. As Rebecca was away, Nsibambi revealed, Kisamba stayed home baby-sitting and made ends meet by working as a special hire taxi driver to supplement on his meager income. He praised Kisamba for being such a liberated African man prudently knowing spouses aren’t to be owned like property.
Later on in life, Kisamba was to serve as a research fellow at Makerere Institute of Social Research (MISR) where Nsibambi was Director and directly supervised him. It was while at MISR that Kisamba, who by the way is also a Professor ordained by an American University, started his PhD which he had the burden of completing when he was already a Minister in Museveni’s government. “That speaks to the man [Kisamba Mugerwa]’s discipline,” Prof Nsibambi noted adding that “it takes extreme discipline to finish a PhD.” An expert on rural economic development, Kisamba’s MISR works concentrated on rural development, an attribute Museveni must have sought to harness when in 1996 he made him Minister for Entandikwa which tackled household poverty. Renowned for his promptness when it comes to time-keeping, Nsibambi caused laughter when he said in cabinet Kisamba never came late for meetings. He said he has been to his home where he operates “a small” farming holding and its evident Kisamba “is not pretentious about his life style.” He said being a flexible person, he has no doubt Kisamba is going to enjoy good retirement in rural Bamunanika. He urged the NRM government to reciprocate Kisamba’s 47 years of public service with increased investment in Luwero Triangle’s transformation because of the “trauma” residents endured in the Museveni’s NRA liberation war. The plain-speaking political science Professor said a lot has been achieved for Luwero but much more remains undone. Celebrated media personality Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi (who was Dr. Patrick Birungi’s co-MC at the event) commended Kisamba for prudently knowing when to retire from academia, parliament, cabinet, international career (at FAO) and now public service.
With Kisamba gone, Cabinet (which John Nagenda famously one time said was full of spineless men and women) will conspicuously miss a fearless old man whose selfless counsel Museveni always took in good faith. As NPA Chairman, Kisamba used his influence on Museveni to get many MDAs’ budgetary allocations increased and beneficiaries include the Judiciary which until a few years ago used to get peanuts. Today they are allocated over a trillion courtesy of Kisamba’s lobbying efforts. It was him again who impressed it on Museveni it was a mistake to close Uganda Airlines and successfully got the President buy into proposals to have itrestored. Look forward to a comprehensive article titled “How Kisamba Mugerwa will be remembered.” And for more about the Sheraton send-off event, see our pictorial. For comments, call/text/whatsapp us on 0703164755.
