PROJECT SUCCESS: It was a family affair for the Kabumbas

In Part X of Project Success, we track down Kabumba Busingye, the best A-Level student of 2000. He tells his story to Benon Herbert Oluka

Around the time that Kabumba Busingye started his Senior One at Namilyango College in 1994, his elder brother, Kabumba Kwesiga, emerged the 14th best O-Level student in Uganda. Mr Kwesiga had completed his O-Level in the same school.

Although Mr Busingye had also emerged one of the best two students at St. Kizito Primary School with four aggregates in four subjects, he did not make the ideal start in a school where his elder brother had been a star student.

Consequently, Mr Kwesiga’s performance became the stick with which some of Mr Busingye’s teachers beat him out of his lean spell.

“I remember not doing well in Chemistry and our teacher, Mr Wanyama, saying, ‘Your brother was among the best in the country and you are here doing funny things,” recalled Mr Busingye, now aged 27.

In contrast, according to Mr Busingye, his parents did not put him under similar pressure so he often felt more relieved returning home for the holidays.

Mr Busingye’s father, Prof. Ijuka Kabumba, is a former Managing Director of National Insurance Corporation while his mother, Mrs. Bazaire Kabumba, is a former head teacher of Kololo Senior Secondary School.

“It would have been easy for them to say you must be the best but they did not. Their feeling has always been, ‘Do what you can. Do your best and you will be fine’,” he said.

“My Dad always told his children, ‘Being number one doesn’t matter. I will be happy if you are the last but you tell me that that is the best you could do’.”

Four years later, Mr Busingye emulated his elder brother by coming top in his school and the 15th best student in the country, according to results released by the Uganda National Examinations Board (Uneb) that year.

Quadruple A
During his A-Level, where he did History, Economics, Literature in English and Divinity at King’s College, Budo, Mr Busingye went a step better than his previous; he led the country with four As and division two in General Paper.

“The first feeling was relief; relief that I had passed and was going to get the course I wanted,” said Mr Busingye of his immediate reaction to the news of his achievement.

During his senior six vacation, Mr Busingye compiled a poetry anthology titled ‘Whispers of my Soul’. It won first prize in the published works category at the National Book Trust of Uganda awards of 2002.

When he eventually started his law degree, Mr Busingye’s success in secondary school put him under more pressure.

“There was this whole thing about government versus private sponsorship,” he said. “The year we entered law school, the best student in the outgoing year was a private student; a guy called Frank Mugabi. So it was more like a challenge; people were saying, ‘let us see whether you can do what you did at A-Level’.”