Nabukenya promised to return home in July
Lover of children; Catherine Nabukenya had a heart for children. She died in Ethiopia.
PHOTO/courtesy.
What you need to know:
- Nabukenya attended Buganda Road Primary School, Stella Maris Secondary School Nsuube in Nkokonjeru, St Lawrence Citizen’s School and Nkumba University.
- She leaves behind three beautiful daughters: Poula Nalwadda Ntale, Precious Ntale and Catherine Ntale.
- The father of her daughters, Dan Ntale was a former footballer who featured for Miracle Centre among other clubs. She will dearly be missed by her sisters Dorothy Nassuuna and Prossy Ndagire in Boston,US.
- The brothers include Herbert 'Masanda' Nsubuga - a former SC Villa goalkeeper, Grace Ssekamatte formerly of Eagles band fame now residing in Boston USA, Joseph Lulibe in London, UK, Nasser Kanaabi and George Matovu. Nabukenya, may you leave and remain jolly and caring even in heaven.
A week before her sudden death from heart attack on June 13, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Catherine Nabukenya, 41, rang her mother, Prossy Nalunga. Nabukenya said she missed home, Lule Zone in Lubaga Division, and all family members but promised to return for holidays in July.
It was just a month away. Nabukenya who was a kindergarten teacher in Addis Ababa, breathed her last on June 13, and due to travel restrictions caused by Covid-19 her body was preserved until July 11. An Ethiopian Airlines plane carrying her remains touched down at Entebbe Airport in July the month she had promised to return to her motherland.
According to Nalunga, the last person to talk to Nabukenya was her daughter Poula Nalwadda Ntale.
“They talked on phone two days before her death. Nabukenya sounded okay only that she complained of irregular heartbeats but assured her daughter she would be all right and that there should not be any cause for alarm, promising to consult a doctor,” the mother relates.
The sad news
One Saturday afternoon, Nalunga was enjoying her siesta when her phone rang. It was Nabukenya’s friend in Spain.
“She asked whether I had heard from Nabukenya on that day to which I replied, no. Then, she told me that she had received some bad news about her death and immediately ended the call. I, at first thought this was a joke. I immediately picked a phone and called Nabukenya. Someone else picked it and spoke a language I could not understand. Shortly afterwards, her Ugandan colleague came on the line and spoke in Luganda confirming the news of Nabukenya’s death,” Nalunga recalls.
Nalunga broke into a wild scream that attracted the attention of family members and neighbours. They came running and some thought that she had been bitten by a snake, only to be shocked by the tragic news of the death of ever jolly person they all loved.
Nabukenya had relocated to Ethiopia in 2019 from Liberia where she earlier taught. Just like in Uganda, even in Ethiopia, she was equally loved and adored by colleagues and her pupils who reportedly shed tears on receiving the sad news.
Selfless and hardworking
The Ugandan Ambassador to Ethiopia Rebecca, Amuge Otengo, too expressed shock and immediately sent a message of condolence to Nabukenya’s family while the head of the Ugandan community in Ethiopia Capt Dr James Kanagwa described Nabukenya as exemplary, kind and open to fellow Ugandans working in Ethiopia.
Dorothy Nassuuna, an elder sister, said Nabukenya’s death was a big blow to the family.
“I have never seen someone so determined like Catherine. She was so hardworking and would hardly start a project and leave it unfinished. Her determination surely used to amaze us all,” says Nassuna.
Nassuuna said Nabukenya taught them how to make chicken mash from Cassava and banana peels, how to make quality wine, soap and so many other things, for she was someone that would never run out of ideas. She was said to have been so generous and would part with whatever she possessed to help those in need.
During her wedding fundraising around 2002 someone gave her a $100 note and Nabukenya donated the money to her church later in the day, to the anger of some family members. She believed that however much you give to those in need God triples for you.
Heiress with heart for children
She was a special family member; such that something unusual occurred when she was chosen as heir to her paternal grandmother, Christine Kyomubi during her last funeral rites some years back. Nabukenya’s father, Fred Sebyala was a prominent Kampala businessman. And Nabukenya had too much love for children, one reason she one time started a kindergarten at their Lubaga family home with the aim of enabling children from poor neighbourhoods to acquire education at subsidised tuition.
A globetrotter, Nabukenya began by going to Cyprus for further studies. On arrival, she was denied entry into the country for unexplained reasons. She was so intelligent, determined and never returned to Uganda but headed to Singapore where she spent some time before relocating to Norway. Later, she went to Spain where she spent some years. Before going to Ethiopia.
On repatriation
Nabukenya’s mum narrated the ordeal the family went through to have her body returned home for burial at her ancestral home at Kalasa in Bulemeezi County.
“We had lost hope. Then one day, President Museveni addressed the nation and announced the easing of travel restrictions and allowing the repatriation of bodies of Ugandans who died abroad as long as they did not die of Covid-19.
The sitting room was packed to capacity by grief-stricken family members and when they heard the president’s announcement, they broke into cheers. “It was as if Nabukenya had resurrected,” she says.
She was laid to rest at her ancestral home village in Kalasa, Bulemeezi County on Monday, July 13, exactly a month after her planned date of returning home.
