Farming, research and reading occupy me- Drake Sekeba

Vumbula, a socio-political investigative TV programme on WBS TV, was perhaps one of the most popular at the start of the 2000s in Uganda. Drake Ssimwogerere Sekeba, a veteran journalist whose journalism practice dates back to the 1960s, was the face and brain behind Vumbula. Many would agree that he is still averagely famous in Uganda because of the TV programme.

Our meeting
On a Sunday morning, we set out to meet Sekeba at his retirement home in Makindye. This, of course, was after he agreed to the appointment. At 10 minutes to the agreed time of appointment, we arrive at his home. On a well-maintained expansive green compound, we find a man (whose name I don’t ask) picking guavas. The compound covers about 30 by 100 feet. On this plot seats a medium size house.
On seeing us, the man stops picking the guavas immediately, he greets us and introduces himself as one of Sekeba’s sons.
“Wasuze otya Sebbo.. Nkuyambye ntya (Good morning. How may I help you?),” Sekeba’s son asks. I explain that I have a 10am appointment with his father.

“He must be expecting you but, he has gone to church. Wait for him in the sitting room,” he responds as he ushers me in. There are framed photos of Sekeba and his family and African art pieces hanging on the wall. Twenty minutes later, Sekeba arrives. “I think we should start off right away,” he says.

The young dream
His journalism career was not born by mistake. At 13 years in Primary Five, Sekeba had a dream.
“Becoming a journalist is not something that befell me. In Primary Five at Nabagereka Primary School, I had a dream of becoming a journalist. As a child, I loved writing something I think also greatly influenced me later to become a journalist,” Sekeba recalls.
He initiated writing lessons for a class newspaper for which, he and fellow classmates contributed stories about experiences in their home areas at the weekends. Sekeba’s role was to edit and pin the stories on the notice board.
Despite his dream, at a tender age, Sekeba says no media house would take him on. “Since I was young, I chose to continue with my studies but kept my dream of becoming a journalist [alive],” he says. In Senior Four at St Francis College, Old Kampala, Sekeba decided to pursue his dream.

“In Senior Four [1965], I walked to Sekanyolya one of the prominent newspapers in Uganda at the time. I asked Grace Semakula, the newspaper editor if I couild become a reporter. Mr Semakula didn’t agree with the idea of me practicing journalism since I was still a student. He told me that the company didn’t have money to pay me,” Sekeba recalls.
At school, he attended the morning classes, in the afternoon he pursued his passion. Despite Semakula’s advice, Sekeba persisted.
“I insisted that my priority was to learn journalism and not making money at the time. Mr Semakula agreed to this. He, however told me that if any of my stories got published, they would pay me,” Sekeba relates.

Facing the hurdles
“Practising journalism then,” Sekeba says “was one thing that came with challenges because I was still a student.”
He had to juggle school and work.
“Starting out, I had to make sure that I balance work and school. Also, I didn’t know anything about journalism but I was passionate about the trade,” he explains.
Sekeba also says most stories were usually assigned to specific writers. This, he says, made it hard for him to have his first story published. “It took me close to six months to get a story published. It was frustrating, but I persisted,” Sekeba recalls.

His first story
While walking to Sekanyolya offices one day, Sekeba heard a fire brigade truck siren. Despite this happening in the vicinity of their offices, this didn’t get the attention of most journalists at Sekanyolya.
“When I heard the fire brigade siren, I looked for where the sound was coming from. I saw fire brigade trucks taking the Makindye direction and I followed them. They were going to rescue a drunkard who had got burnt in his hut. To my surprise, there was no journalist from any media house at the scene. So, I worked on the story and submitted it to the editor,” Sekeba narrates.
“The story came out days later because initially it had some gaps. I had not spoken to the police or witnesses. When the story came out, it was titled: “Man dies in a house fire,” he explains. He rewrote it twice before publication.

Meanwhile, Sekeba continued his studies. After St Francis College in Old Kampala, he went on to further his education at the Institute of Publicity Media in Mwanza, Tanzania. He pursued a diploma in journalism for 18 months. He would later return to Kampala and enrol as a publisher for Day and Night, a tourism magazine for two years before joining The People, a Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) newspaper as a sub-editor. This, he says, was because he preferred working with mainstream media.

Journalism in turbulent times
Sekeba’s 50-year-journalism career has had its highs and lows. It started with when Idi Amin became President of Uganda. During Amin’s regime, Sekeba first worked as a chief sub-editor at The People formerly a UPC newspaper.
“While at The People, I ran a London-originated article praising the Tanzanian system of agriculture which didn’t go well with Amin’s henchmen. I was summoned to the President’s office at Nakasero and his presidential press secretary, Capt Valentine Ochima, gave me a verbal warning about what I had done. My editor, John Bagenda Mpima, was however sacked with immediate effect through a Radio Uganda special announcement,” he narrates.

Defying Amin?
On another occasion, the president had instructed him, through Capt Ochima to run photos of him at a rally in northern Uganda but they did not comply.
“We sent a photojournalist to the rally and on that day he returned with the photos, but we didn’t have the facilities to run the photos the following day [a Monday]. When the paper came out, there were no photos of the president’s rally in northern Uganda. Amin was furious so he called me asking why the paper had not published the photos. I told him we didn’t have the plates and blocks to publish the photos in the paper, something the President didn’t buy,” Sekeba recollects.
“He thought I was telling lies. He told me that there were many plates in Kikuubo and many building blocks on Entebbe Road. When I heard the President say this, I knew he hadn’t understood what I had explained to him. I apologised since he was furious,” Sekeba explains.

Sekeba later joined Uganda Argus, a newspaper largely owned and controlled by the British. This, however, didn’t save him from conflicting with Amin’s men. While pursuing his master’s degree in Journalism in UK, Sekeba was part of a group of Ugandans under an umbrella body, Uganda Human Rights Group, which opposed Amin’s regime. That was not the end of his journalism trials.
During Obote II regime, Sekeba, who was at the time, the founding editor, The star newspaper, was detained and sent to Luzira maximum prison in October 1983. Sekeba says, the chief of intelligence, Clement Ddumba and Minister for security, Chris Rwakasisi, pleaded with the President, Milton Obote for him to be released arguing there was no strong reason for his detention since he had published facts. He was released four months later.

This came after he had published a story from a letter sent by a reader, with the headline ‘Probe ministers’ ealth’.
In 1984, at a press conference of editors at Nakasero President’s lodge, the army chief of staff, Brigadier David Oyite Ojok, and the vice president Paulo Muwanga, who knew Sekeba, demanded an explanation as to why he had published a story the previous day in Ngabo a Luganda newspaper that NRA rebels had bombed a bus killing 100 people at Kakerenge.
In response, Sekeba says, all editors gave a collective response that there was nothing to explain to the government because they had published facts.

Starting Vumbula
Upon establishing his brand, WBS TV management reached out to the veteran journalist.
“WBS management reached out to me because they wanted me to start a Luganda TV programme. So I came up with Tula Twogere, a Luganda talk show. The programme’s name and format changed to Vumbula, a programme I became popular for because of the way I used to unearth issues. This time I was doing socio-political investigation,” Sekeba says. Sekeba also adds that he had previously been engaged with talk show hosting at UTV made it easy for him to be identified by WBS management.

Balancing work and family
Sekeba is married to Margaret Nakayiza Sekeba and they have four daughters. He says he managed to balance work life and family by managing his time well.
“When it came to family time, I tried very hard not to mix the two,” he says. He also adds that for the time he was in and out of prison after conflicting with the state because of his journalistic work, his friends and family helped him with taking care of his family.

In retirement
After close to five decades of practice, Sekeba chose to retire from journalism when WBS television closed in 2016. This has however, not changed his life very much. Sekeba still passively lives the life of a journalist.
“I have not stopped practicing journalism to-date although now, unlike before, I just engage myself in research that can be helpful when hosting talk shows mostly political and history ones,” he says.
“I am also a farmer and I spend my weekends in Buikwe. This has kept me busy during retirement,” he adds.

Journalism then and now
“Journalism back then,” Sekeba says, “was a bit complicated because media houses then didn’t have enough freedom, especially during Idi Amin’s regime.” Some of the things that have changed include the ease with which journalists access information, something he says was not easy back in the day.

Who is Sekeba?
Sekeba was born on October 3, 1944 to Nehemiah Batume and Eriyosi Namugaanji in Makindye. He sat his Primary Leaving Exams at Nabagereka Primary School, then went to Kibuye Junior Secondary School before joining St Francis College in Old Kampala for his secondary school education.

Tips for a good journalist
• A good journalist, according to Sekeba, is one who deeply researches before working on a story. This, he says, is a skill that is vital in information gathering since it helps a journalist get the facts right.

• Additionally, hard work, not getting bribes and always being articulate, fair and balanced are some of the qualities any good journalist must have today.

Typical day
I wake up at… 7am. I have my breakfast while listening to radio or watching TV.
At around 9am… I go to the library and do some leisure reading. I read literature that cuts across all spheres of life. Besides, Sekeba also says to-date they still invite him to some radio programmes. This has pushed him into researching to be in the know of what is going on.