US sanctions blow veil off Gen Kayihura family

Divine intervention. Religious leaders pray for Gen Kale Kayihura and his family at a function in Kisoro Town in 2017. PHOTO BY ANDREW BAGALA

The US Treasury Department travel sanctions on former Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura has blown the veil off his family, sucking in his wife Angela Umurisa Gabuka, daughter Tesi Uwibambe and son Kale Rudahigwa.

The US government slapped sanctions on Gen Kayihura over alleged corruption and human rights abuse during his reign as head of Uganda Police Force.
Until the sanctions, Gen Kayihura’s family had been out of the limelight and very little or nothing was known about them.

Angela Umurisa Gabuka Kayihura
She was born in Kenya. She is a relative of the late Mutara III Rudahigwa, the king of Rwanda in the 1950s.
Ms Kayihura is a teacher by profession but a source who lived with her said she is preoccupied with housework and looking after her family.

The source described her as a woman of reserved character, but frank and forceful. She said Ms Kayihura is generous to vulnerable children in the Muyenga neighbourhood, Makindye Division where they live.

The close family source said Ms Kayihura is feared by everyone at home as she prefers things done her way to perfection and any dissent or divergence attracts a prompt fallout.

Her known public appearance was in the High Court about five years ago when her sister Jacqueline Uwera Nsenga was on trial for murder of her husband Juvenal Nsenga.

She appeared in court often until her sister was convicted in September 2014.
Ms Kayihura is a member of an association of wives of Uganda army generals.

Ms Tesi Uwibambe
Ms Uwibambe, like her mother, is a quiet and reserved person, according to those she has worked closely with her.
She compensates her oratory shortfalls with written expressions and her views have been published by several media houses, especially in the United States.

Ms Uwibambe went to International School of Uganda. She completed high school on May 27, 2011.

She joined Seattle University in Washington, where she studied public affairs specialising in health policy. She completed her undergraduate studies in 2016, according to Seattle University alumni list.

In an article about leaders for Africa, Ms Uwibambe said right from childhood, she knew community service was her thing.
“All I knew very early in life was that I wanted to help people in some way. My peers often questioned me on why I did not have the ambition for making a lot of money, becoming rich and famous. I always felt drawn to serving others, especially those less fortunate than I, as opposed to earning heaps of money to spend on myself,” Ms Uwibambe wrote.

She added: “This, together with my love for Uganda, led me to choose between being a soldier in the Ugandan army to defend my country, or to work in the medical field. Since I am not sure of my physical strength, I have chosen to follow the path of medicine where I can find ways to improve the health sector in my country.”

It is her love for health issues that could have influenced her parents to rehabilitate Kisoro Referral Hospital’s children ward, donate incubators, beds, beddings and oxygen concentrator in 2017.

While in the United States, Uwibambe was an ardent writer and human rights activist regularly contributing articles to Seattle University newspaper.

Many of her articles advocated rights of women and minorities such as black people and gays.
She also did research in police and vigilante violence towards communities of colour and the dynamics that play into the systems that perpetuate such violence in Seattle.

On September 22, 2016, she authored in Seattle Times an article titled: “Why ‘whitesplaining’ is hurtful to people of color”, defending protests in the US by African American against police violence.

After returning to Uganda in 2017, she joined the World Food Programme in Rwanda where she worked on health policy issues. It is alleged that she returned to Uganda after the Rwanda-Uganda icy relations last year.

When her father was taken to the General Court Martial last year, she attended the proceedings in the military court at Makindye and was often overcome by emotion and cried.
It is not clear what she does currently.

Mr Rudahigwa

He holds a degree in Law from University of Buckingham, UK. Rudahigwa went to St Mary’s College Kisubi for secondary education between 2003 and 2008, the same school his father attended in 1970s.

He inherited his father’s Marxist ideas. He even wore T-shirts with Ernesto Che Guevara photographs and kept a long beard and hair in his youthful years. He went to UK for his tertiary education where he studied a course in oil and later joined University of Buckingham from 2013 to 2016. He returned in 2017 and became his father’s aide, the duty he has maintained to-date.