I could not let him have it the easy way

On Good Friday, this year, Samson Kaggwa Ssekibuule told his girlfriend, Hope Kamatsiko, that Uplink Investments Limited, an IT company they run together had been invited to an ICT conference. 

He insisted that it was important for her to attend the conference but she was hesitant.

But he was not about to back down. Just like he never gave up four years ago when he first set eyes on her.

She finally gave in and agreed to travel to the conference he kept anonymous.

Along the way, he stopped the car and feigned a mechanical issue.

Ofcourse this did not go down well with her since she had insisted that they use a different car.

He apologised before getting out and on the phone, pretending to call a mechanic.

“He seemed fishy though. As we waited for help, I saw a camera person and I feared that the journalists covering the Way of the Cross were going to capture us too,” she recalls.

Overwhelmed

When she turned around to speak to Kaggwa, he was on one knee, with a ring in his hand. At that point, boda boda riders started surrounding them and excitedly asked her not to say ‘No’.

For a moment, she did not know what was going on. He was proposing to her in the middle of the road and she was overwhelmed by the moment.

All he needed was for her to say ‘yes’ and when she did, his heart calmed.

He was satisfied that the love of his life had accepted to start another chapter of their journey with him.

June 10, 2021 was the date set for the big do.

The first chapter started when their eyes first locked in 2017.

Then, each liked what they saw but like any lady worth her values and looks, Kamatsiko made sure he earned his way into her heart and life.

At the time, Kaggwa was a manager of a comedy outfit that performed at Laftaz Bar & Restaurant at Centenary Park in Kampala where she was a patron.

He saw her once, then twice and fell for her.  She was pretty, still is and whenever she smiled, he felt his world turned on.  He approached her and confessed that he liked her.

He also asked for her number.

She refused to give it to him and told him to look for it. He engaged one of her friends who volunteered the number.  When he got it, he called her the next morning and re-introduced himself.

Then she lost her phone and communication broke down. For three weeks, she was off air and he was unsettled.  He felt like a winner who had lost his trophy.

Out of sight

She was out of sight too. He kept trying her phone and the moment she got a phone and got back on air, he was the first to call, with concern about what had happened to her.

When she told him about the loss of the phone, he asked to see her and at the meeting, presented her with a new phone.

She was grateful but not won over.

Meanwhile, Kamatsiko’s friends were throwing jibes at her for ‘playing hard to get’ yet she liked the guy.

“I just did not want him to have it the easy way. He was serious at starting a committed relationship with me. He was caring and proved he wanted to love me,” she recalls.

The harder she guarded her heart, the more determined he became to earn his place there because that convinced him that she was a woman of character who would not let someone undeserving in her life.

The major reason he was convinced about asking for Kamatsiko’s hand in marriage was her affection and being able to change him for the better.

Fun loving

“I would go out and enjoy parties till morning hours but with time, she would check on me and remind me about going home to rest ahead of a working day the next day. I needed someone like her to support me. That is why I also convinced her to be part of my company and work environment,” the IT professional argues.

Kamatsiko is a graduate with a degree of Science in Accounting and Finance from Kyambogo University. She is fun-loving and a born-again Christian.

Kaggwa studied Information Communication Technology at Uganda Christian University (UCU) where he was retained as a lecturer. Together they run Uplink Investments Limited.

He explained that he felt it important and complementary to work with his partner because it further builds their bond, trust and support for one another.

“Plus, in the business, I keep moving up and down and we use and handle expensive gadgets, I would employ someone to take care of them but if I have my partner there, I can rest assured that they are safe because we share plans as entrepreneurial partners too,” Kaggwa explains.

To matters of the heart, he adds that his wife is ‘a full package’.

“I call her a package of blessings; a loving lady, prayerful and humble woman. She comes from a good background. Those are among the things I prayed for. She is welcoming, loving and friendly.”

To her, trusting him was natural.

“When I met him, my heart connected with him. I started trusting him from that day we met. He started caring about me, looking out for me, ensuring that I was safe. He started taking me home. It was new to me because I had not been in a relationship and I had many of my friends complaining about their boyfriends. I realised this guy was different,” Kamatsiko recollects.

She describes him as the most selfless person who thinks of her before himself. “He is the most caring person, very loving, passionate, hardworking and he is fun,” she says.

His advice for those in committed relationships or intending to commit to one another, is to build trust alongside love and openness.

His fiancée on the other hand says that relationships have no formula and as such, couples should build on what works for them.