Katumba Mukasa was knocked dead outside his home gate on the evening of May 4.  PHOTO/FILE

|

Hit-and-run death robs family of dad

What you need to know:

  • Born on December 7, 1946, Mukasa was the seventh of Enosi Ssewagaba Mukasa and Manjeri Nabugo Mukasa’s 12 children. 
  • Since the tragic incident, the deceased’s family has witnessed firsthand how slow the wheels of justice turn. Investigations into the hit-and-run have yielded more promises than results.

Epaphras Katumba Mukasa’s family is yet to come to terms with the fact their head is no longer part of them. 
“The hardest thing is that there was no goodbye. It was just like he disappeared,” his widow, 66-year-old Josephine Katumba says. 
Mukasa was knocked dead outside his home gate on the evening of May 4. It was around 9pm when an Isuzu Canter that had packed metres away from his gate knocked him down.  If he had a fighting chance, the hit-and-run driver ensured that there was none by reversing twice over his body, crushing his head, ribs and limbs in the process. 
Since the tragic incident, the deceased’s family has witnessed firsthand how slow the wheels of justice turn. Investigations into the hit-and-run have yielded more promises than results.
 READ: Muhumuza lived and breathed journalism
Born on December 7, 1946, Mukasa was the seventh of Enosi Ssewagaba Mukasa and Manjeri Nabugo Mukasa’s 12 children. 
He attended Nakyessanja Primary School, Aggrey Memorial School and Lubiri Secondary School. He then joined Kyambogo Polytechnic (current day Kyambogo University) for a course in science laboratory, upgrading with a diploma in paint chemistry from Cambridge University in London.
 
Technologist extraordinaire 
Known for his giant hyper-realist paint theories, Mukasa kept working into his old age. He did this for passion. 
One of the few paint technologists in Uganda in the early 1970s, Mukasa declined lucrative opportunities to work overseas. He trained a new generation into the science and always, as a colleague put it, went “an extra mile to understand what awaited their industry over time.”
“Since our works rotated around using various chemicals, pigments and preservatives to make paints, Mukasa looked ahead and advised that our working conditions would expose us to killer diseases like cancer in the long run,” says Mr Joseph Ssempala, who worked with the late Mukasa at Robbialac paints in the 1970s. 
Mr Ssempala, who now sits at the Uganda National Bureau of Standards’ paints technical committee, in their last conversation had interested Mukasa in joining the government agency.
Despite his vast knowledge, Mukasa always preferred to take a backseat. This barely dimmed his abilities. He was, as his mentee Peter Kiberu told Sunday Monitor, renowned as a great master of colour, light, space, proportion, the foreground, the background and the mysterious intermediate space in between. 
 
Work experience 
Before leaving to further his education in London, Katumba worked with Makerere University veterinary laboratory. Upon return, he joined Robbialac Paints in Uganda. Following the 1972 political unrest in Uganda, he was forced to move to Kenya where he worked for Robbialac Paints Kenya and later Twiga Paints.
He would later return to Uganda in 1989 and rejoin Robbialac Paints. In 1992, he switched to Sadolin paints before joining Peacock Paints four years later. 
In 1999, he attempted to start a painting company with his colleagues. When it failed, he resorted to farming. But after a decade, Kenya’s Delta Paints sought his expertise in 2010. He later joined Nairobi-based Star Paints, and worked from 2015 until 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic forced him to concentrate on personal and consultancy work. 
 
Faithful servant
Mukasa met his wife around 1974. The two, who stayed a stone’s throw from each other in Bukesa, Kampala, started off as friends. By 1977, when they had their first child—Majorine, the friendship had well and truly blossomed into a relationship. 
Mr Edward Ssembajjwe—their second born child and first son—describes Mukasa as a loving father who taught them the power of ownership.
Mukasa’s love for God and the Church did not go unnoticed. He served as a minister in Kawanda Church of Uganda since its inception. A classified singer whose voice was tenor, Mukasa never missed singing practice at church every Tuesdays and Fridays. 
On Sundays, he attended all but also sang during all church services (7am and 10am). Mukasa displayed the same talent and passion while in Kenya.  
“He loved the Afrigo Band, but his favourite of them all was Elly Wamala whose songs he sang from start to end,” his widow asserts. 
 
Foul play?
Ms Josephine Katumba, his wife, says on the fateful day she spent the morning with her husband in the garden. He returned home to lunch before leaving for church choir singing practice at 2pm. They talked again on the phone at around 5pm. Four hours later, the bombshell of his death was dropped.  
“The thoughts that his accident was intentional keeps coming on a daily basis. We cannot confirm it because police are still underway with investigations,” Ssembajjwe says, hinting at the land disputes that had seen his father seek legal redress. 
The late died aged 77 and was buried on May 6 at his ancestral home in Nakyessanja Village, Kawanda in Wakiso District. He is survived by a widow, and five children.