Mzee Katono: Dear and fulfilled father

James Katono, a former banker, businessman, family man, politician and inspirer of generations breathed his last on the morning of September 27, aged 106 years. Charlotte Kanabahita and Perez Rumanzi pay tribute to him.

A night before he passed on he chatted with friends and family members.  Mzee James Katono told them the story of his life and how he wanted to be buried, made the last will and final wish, shared from the bottle of wine and sat by a night fire in his compound.  When he entered his house, it was the last time he entered alive.

With his oldest daughter, Winnie Katono, who took care of him for some time, they prayed after their meal, and went to bed, but nausea stopped it all. He buckled a few hours later.

“After our prayers, dad called me and asked for water, he was nauseous and unwell. He could not hold up. He collapsed into my arms, I called my sister,  who called in an ambulance at 10pm. We drove him to Itojo hospital,”  Winnie says.
That was on September 27.

Healthy  environmentalist
He described himself  “A proud “omusigi wa Mparo na Kanywelo, eyempungu ezerera ekabugwa obubandamo” (his lineage).  He was an incredible 106 years old, his mind razor sharp and his body upright.  

I enjoyed drinking from his fountain of wisdom.  He was not just my father-in-law but also my friend, “ writes Charlotte Kanabahita, a daughter-in-law.  “ I first heard about intermittent fasting as a lifestyle from him.  It’s now the new craze but Mzee Katono had been practicing it for many years.”

Mzee, an environmentalist,  gave strict instructions on how he wanted to be given his final send-off.  
“He wanted it to be quick and simple.  No tiles or cement in his grave.  He just wanted to merge with nature as in “soil to soil” as he always put it.  He didn’t want a coffin (though this was hard to implement). He wanted a fruit tree planted on his grave and wanted grass and shrubs to be allowed to grow naturally,” Kanabahita recounts. “He used herbal medicines. His food was simple and as natural as possible.  His farm is full of fruits and vegetables.”  

Sociable
“Our father was so friendly that if you came home with a friend, he would steal them from you and when you complain that he stole your friend, he would ask you to take up his friends instead, I found myself with only old people as my friends because he had taken all my young friends for himself,” Susan Sayuni Katono, a daughter says.

Despite his love for socialising, Mzee Katono was feeling lonely.
“He told me many things about his young life, his work, his women, his children and the life he was left with. He wished for death because all his old friends were gone.

The saddest of all his stories was how he wanted a low key burial ceremony,” says Onesmus Matsiko, a lawyer and his close friend and one of the last people he talked to before he died.

On Saturday evening, he hosted some friends together with his children. They lit a fire at his designed fireplace in his compound that overlooks the Ntungamo- Kabale road. They sipped on bottles and glasses of wine, talked at length before each went their way.

“He asked me to cancel my travel to Kabale. I don’t take wine or any gin but he asked me to take two glasses of wine. I obliged, I did not know that was the last he had to offer me. I will forever miss him,” his oldest son, Charles Barimu Katono says.

To Kanabahita, Mzee Katono  rose from a simple village boy in Mparo to getting an education and exposure in Britain, Kenya and Uganda and eventually becoming the first African bank manager for Barclays Bank in Uganda.

Upon retirement, he took to business until he retired to his farm in Ntungamo.  

“Mzee Katono was a free spirit.  To put it in my daughter’s (his granddaughter) words  ‘Mzee Katono lived a full life on his own terms, he was not one to worry about “what will others think” or let the threat of “shame” stop him from living his life the way he wanted.  I respected that about him.  

The courage to live life on my own terms, this is the legacy I shall carry forward from him’,” says Kanabahita. 

Selfless grandfather
“I remember one particular incident when Uganda National Roads Authority  wanted to compensate Mzee for passing a road through land that he had given to my late husband.  The title was still in his name. So, legally, he owned the land,” says Kanabahita.

“Instead, Mzee asked me to give him the paperwork so he could finalise the land transfer to my name.  I chose to transfer the land to his grandchild - my daughter.

 And the compensation was sent to her account.  Mzee never even once asked how much the compensation was.  He just told me that ‘I cannot give you a cow and then ask you to give me the milk’.

In a society where widows are sometimes stripped of all inheritance, I cannot take this gesture for granted.  Mzee Katono went ahead and gave me a cow to spur me to invest and grow financially,” she recalls. 

“Mzee’s principled lifestyle was testified to by many people at his funeral.  His 106 years were well-invested.  Not just material wealth but in people,” the daughter-in-law eulogises.  

She adds:  “Mzee Katono’s incredible 106 years on earth redefined life for me and many who had the privilege of knowing him.”