
Moses Murungi celebrates after his name was read among the graduates at Kyambogo University on December 12, 2024. PHOTO/DOROTHY NAGITTA.
Recently, Kyambogo University held its 20th graduation ceremony, where a total of 11,721 graduates received degrees and diplomas in various academic fields. Of these, 6,017 were female, whereas 5,704 were male students. At least eight students received PhDs, and 219 received master’s degrees.
Moses Murungi
The four-day event saw 23-year-old Moses Murungi, a special needs student, graduate with a second-class upper Bachelor’s degree in Arts in Economics. Murungi, who was born without limbs, narrates that his academic journey has been fraught with numerous hurdles, having suffered emotional stress due to rejection by some members of society.
“I have met many people who never believed in me. Wherever I go, they always look at me as someone who can’t do anything. Even students at school used to bully me because of my disability, but I have always been trying to prove them wrong and I do wonderful things,” Murungi says.
Childbirth often comes with joy and celebration, but for Murungi’s parents, Mr. Yakobo Kato and Ms. Kevina Namaganda, both residents of Kagadi District, their joy turned into worry on September 24, 2001, when their son was born without limbs.
Some unscrupulous members of their community urged the couple to abandon their baby.
“When they told me that the boy that was born had no limbs, I froze for a moment wondering how I would manage him. Amid this, I got many people from my community who even told me to kill the baby, but I rejected it,” says Mr. Yakobo Kato, Murungi’s father.
Murungi’s parents were determined to raise their child and would not heed naysayers.
“When he grew up, I started teaching him a number of things, including how to feed himself and hold a pen to write before I took him to school,” Mr. Kato says.
At the age of five, Murungi started school at KPS Primary School in Kagadi District and later went to Kids Light Primary School in the same district, where he excelled with a first grade in his Primary Leaving Examinations.
His performance attracted support from well-wishers who offered him a scholarship to join St. Augustine’s College in Wakiso District.
In 2022, he secured a government scholarship to study at Kyambogo University, where he pursued a Bachelor of Arts in Economics. On December 12, Murungi was overjoyed after reading his name among the thousands of graduates from the Faculty of Social Sciences.
“This degree means a lot in my life because it has been my dream since childhood. So, this is a dream come true,” Murungi shares.
Reflecting on his education journey, Murungi told the Daily Monitor that he faced challenges, especially at the university, with mobility and accessing hostels due to his disability, hence missing some classes.
“Most of the university roads do not support wheelchair movement. So, accessing lecture rooms was a bit challenging. Besides that, I also failed to get a room in the halls of residence at the university since the available rooms were upstairs where I couldn’t reach,” he adds.
Despite rejection and adversity, Murungi proved that anything is possible with the right mindset.
“I won’t stop at a Bachelor’s degree. I am going to continue with studies and do a Master’s in this same course,” he says.
Murungi also plans to start an initiative to give hope to children living with disabilities in his community and across the country.
“When I settle down, I am planning to run a campaign in the whole country that will empower students with disabilities and give them more encouragement to study hard and achieve like me. I will also target parents of children with disabilities because, in most cases, we find that these parents are very crucial in making decisions for them,” he says.
Murungi’s mother, Ms. Kevina Namaganda, appeals to well-wishers to support her son in securing a job and helping him run his campaign.
“I know my son is very determined and resilient. He can do any work. Please offer him a job,” she says.

Racheal Namaganda at her graduation ceremony at Kyambogo University on December 10, 2024. PHOTO/DOROTHY NAGITTA.
Racheal Namaganda
The 22-year-old Racheal Namaganda is also among the special needs students who graduated from Kyambogo University during its 20th graduation ceremony.
Namaganda graduated with a second-class upper degree in Community Development and Social Justice. However, she says it has not been an easy journey due to her disability.
“I used to miss lectures whenever it would rain because the roads were very slippery, and my wheelchair could not move,” she narrates.
In 2017, Namaganda suffered a disease that left her paralyzed for two years, forcing her to drop out of school.
“It was very hard for me to make a decision to go back to school because I wondered how I would be schooling when disabled,” she says.
However, she later returned to school after therapy from friends and different counselors and resumed her studies in Senior Six in 2020.
After Senior Six, she was admitted to Kyambogo University in 2021 to pursue a Bachelor’s Degree in Community Development and Social Justice. She graduated on December 10.
Namaganda’s mother, Ms Agnes Ajambo, a resident of Kirombe–Luzira, says the news of her daughter’s disability left her in shock, given that she also had another child living with spina bifida and hydrocephalus.
“I wondered how I would manage to raise two kids with special needs as a single mother. They are really very expensive to take care of, especially in transportation and medication, yet I don’t have a good source of income,” she says.
Ms. Ajambo sold snacks and did laundry in her community to pay for her daughter’s degree.
Despite all the hurdles, Ms Ajambo says her daughter’s achievement has paid off.
“I want to encourage all parents out there with children living with disabilities to support their children and educate them because you never know; she/he might be the child who will change your family,” Ms Ajambo says.
Namaganda is looking at pursuing a Master’s degree to set an example for other students living with disabilities.
The resilience of Murungi and Namaganda is a testament to hard work paying off and a true definition of disability is not inability.