By Andrew Irumba
Yes, I have lost many close friends and relatives, but allow me tell you my sincere heart’s feelings; The demise of so far four people of the world has had a toll on my life and I always tend to want to suggest to God that it should have been another, not these ones. Ofcourse God has superior reasons.
1- The death of my father Augustine Irumba on 30th June 1994 when I was just a little boy in P4
2- Lucky Dube- October 18, 2007
3-Michael Jackson- June 25, 2009 and
4-Maj.Gen.Waswa Kasirye Ggwanga June 9, 2020
As a young boy, my dance strokes and love for music was mainly influenced by Micheal Jackson and Lucky Dube. Forget about just copying their dance moves, I grew up wanting to even walk and dress like them! And for Dube, I was more attracted to his music by his sense of dedication and commitment to Pan-Africanism, it inspired me alot. My love for reggae music is thanks to him and Bob Marley mainly. Ofcourse for my dad it’s obvious.
Please forgive me, I’m not writing as a journalist on this, I’m writing ‘plainly’ about what I feel now.
So now, the fourth person who changed my mindset is Gen.Ggwanga. After a long time, while chasing after a goat in his Camp David One in Mukono that we would roast while chatting in the bush on a campfire, Ggwanga nicknamed me ‘Corporal Irumba’. He said I had ‘passed’ his tests without me knowing! From then, if he called me I would respond; “I am Corporal Irumba” and if I called him, his first word as soon as he picked his phone was; “Nze Gen.Kasirye Ggwanga”…..Cut the Crap…..very humorous, stubborn but again very serious.
Below Are Some Random Memories I Had With Gen.Ggwanga
1– I got to know Gen.Ggwanga through late Africa Muyondo Ddamulira, who used to host both of us on his Talk show ‘N’egwozadde’ on top Radio, many hears ago. One day he commanded that after the show all of us (I don’t remember other names) were going to his farm in Camp David 1 in Mukono to learn how to grow our own food and stop eating from the market. Ggwanga argued that we’re young people who are only involved in ‘useless’ politics of divisionism because we were hungry and therefore looking for food. “A poor, hungry man can’t fight a war, first ensure you have food for your family, and stop eating from the market,” Ggwanga warned. He drove us to his two farms to get first-hand knowledge about agriculture. When we came back,me and late Ddamulira started practicing farming, up to todate.
2– Whenever I visited his farm, we would chase a pig, goat or hen, which ever we caught, we would lit fire in his forest and roast it as we chat.
3– Around 2012, he called on me to visit him in his Makindye home for a chat, but when I was about to leave, I told him that I lacked some fuel in my car because I was a ‘bit poor these days’, he called me near him, thinking he was going to give me money for fuel, he instead commanded me to do 20 push-ups as punishment first before he could tell me why! After taking them, he said; “Never tell me that crap that you’re poor today, tell me when you were rich, so that I know today was exceptional,” he said. Ggwanga lectured me; “Uganda is 33+ (then) million people, Africa is close to one billion, Irumba what do produce that this population has failed to buy from you? What are you selling to the world? How are you benefiting from the growing population? Now,I will not give you free money, go, produce something , bring it to me I buy it, and other people, and I see whether you will cry of poverty, Cut the crap” Ggwanga then ordered his body guard to open for me the gate so I could leave.
I left very bitter, but after three months of not talking, not calling him, I went and studied how to manufacture liquid soap. After packing it, I called but didn’t tell him that I was bringing anything. When we agreed on the day and time to meet, I packed 10 jericans of liquid soap in my car and went with it. I arrived at his home, we chatted and chatted and then I told him; “Last time you challenged me, but today I’m prepared for you, I have something to sale to the world and you will be my first client,” I said. I then walked to the car and wide opened my boot! Guess what his response was! “Hahahaha! Now you have me, you’re a marauder. That’s what I was looking for from you, China is rich because of their population, everyone has something to sale to that big population, when you have nothing to sale, you will be 100% consumer of others’ products, now you know what I wanted,” Ggwanga said. It’s then that Ggwanga started opening up my mind.
Even when he couldn’t use all of them, Ggwanga bought all the ten jericans and gave some to his driver and other house helpers he had at his home. He bought each at shs25,000/-. If you were looking for a University, we’ve just lost one, if you were looking for a disciplinarian, we’ve lost in Ggwanga.
4– He didn’t end there, through his networks, he got me a contract to supply Entebbe airport over 40 jericans of liquid soap per month for about three years till mafias kicked me out. They simply told me they had given the contract to another supplier, no reason was given. When I told Ggwanga, he laughed and said; “leave those idiots, God will give you another one, stay focused, don’t fight back”.
5– Don’t Touch Ggwanga’s Country Music Radio in His Car: One Saturday afternoon I had driven with Ggwanga to his Camp David farm in Mukono in his army car, together with his driver and body guard. I was seated in co-driver’s seat as he was in assassination corner with his body guard. We left his Makindye home listening to country music on Bob Fm till we reached the farm. But on our way back, when he took a nap, I thought I needed to listen to Capital Radio music. So I changed, and his driver and body guard, who were awake didn’t warn me, since they had known me for long as General’s ‘bady’. But when he woke up, the first question was ‘who has touched my radio?’ the driver answered that it was me. The Gen. ordered the car to stop! The car stopped and the Gen.ordered me to get out. I thought he was joking, the General was serous! I got out and they drove like a kilometer and returned and picked me. I had started walking. When I got in, he warned me never to touch on anything in some body’s car. That it’s a discipline. That I should ask if I wanted. I learnt that up todate. I have lost a disciplinarian.
6– In 2014, I visited him at his makindye home and his two youngest boys who had just returned from a nursery school delayed to come and greet me. I was seated with him in the compound, he called them and the punishment was twenty push-ups and salute to me! Ggwanga was humorous.
7-Because I knew he used to drink Bond 7, whenever I visited him I would go with one and some packets of Splash Mango 1 litre because I wanted him to drink. It had become my habit to always take him splash.
8-When he recently returned his body guards to Mbuya military barracks and he was briefly held, he called me and said; I have been arrested but they should cut the crap, because I will not take back these guards, I want to live my private life, I left army. He later called again and told me they had released him and he was on the way to his home in Mityana.
9-Amidst controversy surrounding ownership of his Makindye house, Ggwanga called me, gave me all the information about the house and told me some click of ‘idiots’ just wanted to grab his house, but he warned that he would die with some one. Among those he accused was late Felix Kaweesi who was threatening to evict him. He gave me all the documents pertaining to the house and told me to keep them for him. He only informed his daughter who is a lawyer in town, and that’s when i got to know her also. I kept them, until the matter was settled and now chose to sale it off.
10– Ggwanga would consult me on media related issues and I would advise him. He severally called me to coordinate the media for him if he wanted to to talk to them, because he said some would would twist his statements just to clash him with Gov’t and people some times. So I would in the background recommend and scrutinize for him reporters to give interviews, many times, without those journalists knowing. Any reporter I would recommend to him he wouldn’t suspect them of ill motives to twist his interviews, he was very specific on what he wanted.
Cut The Crap, to be continued….RIP soldier
