The journey begins in February 2009,UNEB releases the UACE results and off we begin our pursuit for the post secondary studies, The application forms were a little funny I mean the University assumed that we were all church going and demanded that a pastoral leader/priest should affix their signature more like a theological recommendation to show one’s Christian grounding or so I think.May 19th -22nd 2009 were the dates for the pre entries and I think this was the first in the COWntry(emphasis mine). They included an oral and written assessment and well our names were pinned up and we had made it for the September LLB intake 2009.
I don’t recall a lot in the orientation week but there was a Friday and the Faculty of Law it was,at the time the outgoing Dean was George William Kasozi and the incoming dean was Dr. Pamela Tibihikirra Kalyegira. Mr. Expedit Kaaya then a Legal Methods lecturer talked about the absurdity of the land holding system of Bunyoro and Buganda making mention of absentee landlord being in Buganda and the tenant in Bunyoro.
The first instructor I remember seeing was Oundo Bernard,he came in to conduct class representative elections and the contestants were,Muhawe,Nish and Kiwana, Kiwana took the day although I felt that Muhawe was too qualified for Class Rep, I mean the guy was talking of the Great Lakes Students Association and I had never heard of it . Doreen Naguddi took up the lady’s slot and off we began. Munobe Samuel came in indoctrinating us to suit up and you should have seen us oversized suits were the order of the day. We were wearing Supreme Coats and Coats of Appeal.
The classes were bittersweet with Kasozi a stickler for time and at one point called a student,a scatter brain on top of reading his large voluminous book,Kitonsa was the teaching assistant and in one of the group presentations,a student was introduced as Senior Counsel and I had never seen Edward that annoyed at the introduction
One of the moments that stand out was the intra faculty football gala. Gala is a huge word, but we were happy
Then came the examinations, pretty tough and a smooth ride for a few,2010 Foundation of Land Law,I think the Act had been passed during that time and it was required in the exam. The Scotch reform by Jeremy Benthem Kalinaki had us writing shorter answers than the question in the Law of Evidence.The journey finally wound up and on 5th July we were conferred upon degrees and a tough huddle lay ahead(Hell Dee Cee)
So when life happened in 2017, the Great September class has always walked beside me, offered financial and material support.During one of the meetings of the Great September Network, an idea was mooted to have the August meeting with me and the vision bearers(Silver, Bwengye, Yovani) came along with Sammy and Jesse but in Bwengye’s words, they couldn’t come empty handed so mobilization was done and my heart is full.
Yesterday I did call Yovani Chrysologous to wish him a happy birthday and I remembered the school days,he had a friend called Chicha and was an ex Seminarian,due to his firm grasp of Latin any Latin word/phrase has to be read right and properly. Kasozi is teaching us Introduction to Law and mentions the word stare decisis in the strict Latin , this is sitare dikyaisis now mentioning it might sound as if you are wrong and majority of the class did laugh in their typical English Puritan Elite style, you see Ignorance is bliss especially in large numbers,if for example you asked a reverend Father to read you habeas corpus he would pronounce it as habeas kyoripus . In our elite take, this would be wrong but shock on us that is the right pronunciation.
Bwengye ‘Alenkovic’ as I like calling him, he was one of the loyal Manchester City supporters that I saw, we later signed up for an entrepreneurship training along with Tshaka Obed and I think we zeroed on Irish potatoes, the story is long but business is not easy much as we believe in startups,in Uganda they don’t see their first birthday
Mugambaniguru the ‘Tipsy Professor’ in one of the IP papers, Mulumba Moses personalized the question inserting the student’s names, this was about a utility model and flying car to be precise and I remember Muhawe’s name and Isabella. I did lots of moots with Tipsy Professor and the highlight was in fourth year when Mwalimu Herman was added to us to reinforce the team for Jessup ’13
Mugero and I were perhaps the only students in our class that dared to participate in the Zain Africa challenge from our September class by then but unlucky were we,we didn’t make the shortlist but that’s the beauty with the gift of failure, you keep on pushing. Mudgero and I later signed up for a Uganda Coffee Development Association’s training on Coffee brewing and tasting. I don’t remember him finishing the training but I did and became a barista. The only maxim we really mastered is Equity aids the vigilant
Muggy Sammy is the most important because he saved me from facing a disciplinary Committee of the University, the story is long and really for another week not even day. He will tell the story someday
Dear Great September ’13, thank you for standing and walking with me all this while, your empathy is beyond amazing and that is why I have written this blog post. May life continue being kind to all of you in your work and family
Mwene 