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MIRACLES STILL HAPPEN: HOW PROFESSOR WASWA BALUNYWA SAVED ME FROM BLINDNESS

When, on the 27th of May, my ophthalmologist at Mengo Hospital, Dr. Dan Bwonya, who had carried out laser operations on my eyes in March 2021 to replace my natural lens, which had developed cataracts, with artificial ones, finally told me that the hospital was releasing me. I was overjoyed. I had become a common figure at the hospital as I had to consult him whenever he told me that I should consult him. He told me, “Your sight has improved tremendously. But you will need glasses to correct the defect of shortsightedness, which has persisted even without new lens. So I am sending you to our opticians. They will make for you the right glasses. As for me, I am done with you”.

After thanking Dr. Dan Bwonya for restoring my sight, I immediately informed Professor Wasswa Balunywa, then the Principal of Makerere University Business School, what had happened. The Professor had been very instrumental in ensuring that I did not lack anything during my sickness. He did not want to see that I experienced any psychological imbalance because of the sickness, which could trigger stress-related diseases.

Apart from accommodating me free of charge at his Entebbe domicile for one month free of charge, he had sent his personal vehicle to my village, Nawaka, in Ikumbya Sub-county, of Luuka District to take me to his home in Entebbe. I rang him to tell him that I was becoming blind. When I broke the bad news to him, he said, “No. You will not become blind. I am sending a vehicle to pick you up. Your problem will be solved. Don’t worry.

I had known Prof. Waswa Balunywa as a man that what his mind told him to do rather than what others wanted him to do. I knew he was not telling me a lie. I needed to see well because I was a writer. If I became blind that would be the end of my literary activities. When he told me all would be well, I did not doubt it. I told Jane my wife what Prof. Waswa Balunywa had decided to do on our behalf. She was extremely happy. She did not want to have a blind husband after 40 years of marriage. She was overjoyed when the driver arrived at 5 pm on a day and date I don’t remember. I was ready to travel.

Prof. Waswa Balunywa had detailed to me that I would first stay at his residence in Bugolobi; that his wife would receive me and then arrange a driver to take me to Mengo Hospital for examination of my eyes. The driver who came for me at Nawaka was very experienced. I forget his name. We arrived at the Professor’s Bugolobi residence at 9 pm. I thanked God for delivering us safely. I found the home very welcoming. Prof. Balunywa’s wife and daughter made me feel very comfortable. It was as if Prof. Balunywa was at home. There was a young man too who interacted with me very well. I wish I remembered his name.

For a time, I forgot that I was partially blind. I liked the library in the house. The glasses I had could nt correct my eye problem, but they were better than nothing. It reminded me of my life as an academic. I saw books I had not seen before. I opened some before and after supper. I almost forgot that I had to sleep early since I was to wake up very early to go to Mengo Hospital Eye Clinic. Mrs Prof Waswa Balunywa reminded me to go to be and wake up early, saying:

“At the Mengo Eye Clinic, it is first come first serve “The driver will be here by 5 a.m. to avoid heavy traffic. So, leave the books, bathe and retire to bed. The young man you were talking to will wake you up”. She showed me the room where I was to spend the night.

I heeded the advice. Indeed, in the morning the young man knocked at the door to wake me up and tell me that the driver had arrived. I left bed, bathed, brushed my teeth and dressed up. I got out of the room and Mrs Prof Waswa Balunywa was already awake. She greeted me and asked me to eat something before I left for the eye clinic. I ate something and went to the place where Prof. Waswa Balunywa’s vehicles were packed. The driver who was to take me to the hospital hooted and I went straight to his car. That same day I was to travel to Prof. Waswa Balunywa’s Entebbe Home after learning what exactly was to happen to my eyes.

Before we set off the driver introduced himself to me. He was Mohammad Ali Kibirige, a stout man who I learnt later had been a soldier. He was very disciplined, dutiful and very good at keeping time. We were almost the first ones to arrive at the Eye Clinic. In a good show of responsibility and obligation, Prof. Waswa Balunywa rang to find out if we had arrived at the Eye Clinic. Kibirige told him that we had and were in the queue.

Soon I was seeing my Doctor, whom I came to know as Dr Dan Bwonya. He examined my two eyes and said I had cataracts. In one eye, which was almost blind, the cataract had obliterated the lens of the eye but in the other one it was progressing more slowly, but if allowed to continue, that would also be blinded. He recommended surgery on both eyes but said he would operate one first and then the other one after two weeks. He gave the date when the first operation would place.

We rang Professor Waswa Balunywa to inform him of the decision of the doctor. He said that was okay and instructed Kibirige to take me to Entebbe. We arrive safely. As I said before, Prof. Waswa Balunywa’s home in Entebbe was a living ecological system with an administration, which made sure that nothing stopped when he was not present. Indeed, when we arrived, he was not present, but the administrator knew exactly what to do, of course on instructions from the Professor. There were separate quarters, where visiting scholars stayed and paid some fees. I was allocated a self-contained unit within those quarters. The environment was very academic and I thought Professor Waswa Balunywa wanted me to have an academic touch and forget about my sickness.

Indeed, twice he made me interact with his academic staff whom he wanted me to talk to. There were also those graduates who had passed through MUBS. I loved it because it was a long time since I interacted with academics directly. I remember on one occasion I talked about the value of knowledge integration in the 21st Century, and on another, I talked about the value of philosophy in education to sustain critical thinking and reasoning. From the questions I got, the academics enjoyed the impromptu lectures. However, I could sense that philosophy and integration of knowledge were foreign since they were products and knowledge workers in strongly disciplinary academic units in the university.

I was to spend a whole month at Prof. Waswa Balunywa’s Entebbe home, well-fed and well-cared for. I sometimes forgot that I was sick. The Professor even introduced me to some of his works and asked me to edit some of them. I realised that was psychological treatment by the professor.

Prof Waswa Balunywa allocated a driver, Mohammad Ali Kibirige, to me to ensure I was safe from Covid 19 through interaction with the public “in public transport”. The driver not only took me to and fro the hospital but also took me to my rural home in Luuka whenever I was through with the Ophthalmologist.

After the laser operations on my eyes by Dr Dan Bwonya, it was made clear to me that my eyes would not self-regulate themselves the way natural eyes do; and that I would require special glasses. When I informed Prof Waswa Balunywa about the glasses, he told me, like he did when I told him about my failing eyes, he said,

Don’t worry about money or anything to do with your health. We shall ensure you are healthy”.

He was aware that Makerere University was still withholding my in-house pension, almost 12 years since I retired in 2009, which was a gross human rights violation by Uganda’s premier University.

I first met Prof Waswa Balunywa in 1966 at his father’s residence in Bugembe, Jinja. He was a young boy. I had gone with my father who wanted to consult Ali Balunywa, the then Administrative Secretary of The Territory of Busoga as it was prescribed by the Uganda Constitution 1962. I later learnt from Prof. Waswa Balunywa that by the time I started Junior Secondary One education at Mwiri Primary School, he was in Primary Two. I did not know him because those days students of Junior Secondary tended to be in a different world of their own.

Years later I met Prof. Waswa Balunywa at Makerere University in the very early 1990s.. When I first met Professor Wasswa Balunywa at Makerere University, I never foresaw that he would be instrumental in my life many years later. He was almost singlehandedly transforming Makerere University through the Department of Commerce. He introduced private programmes in the university before the university knew it could attract extra money into its coffers.

I had been close to Prof. Waswa Balunywa throughout his struggles with the Makerere University Administration. I was Secretary-General of the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA) from 1997 when he moved to MUBS as Principal. However, MUBS remained part of Makerere University administratively and academically. It appeared as if the administration of Makerere University, headed by Prof. John Mary Ssebuwufu, was witch-hunting him. I was happy to hear that despite all his troubles with Makerere University, he was able to complete his last term as Principal of MUBS and is now continuing his teaching of young people by other means. I wish him the best in his retirement.

At one time Prof Waswa Balunywa came to Ssemakokiro Flats with a huge file, which contained a record of copies of communications between him and the Makerere University Administration. He wanted the Makerere University Academic Staff Association (MUASA), especially myself as the Secretary-General of the Association, to be acquainted with issues of contention between him and Makerere University. I was no longer ignorant of them. I decided to personally be on his side and to keep MUASA institutionally the position of Waswa Balunywa in his struggle to give MUBS an identity of its own, administratively free from Makerere University but linked academically.

That was not the only link between Waswa Balunywa and myself. He was a stubborn man. So was I. He had a very high concept of himself. So did I of myself. He loved leading by example. That was my stance too when I was a leader at Busoga College, Mwiri and Makerere University, and the topmost civil society leader in the Nile Basin region as Chairman of the  Uganda Nile Discourse Forum (UNDF) and the Nile Basin Discourse (NBD), a regional NGO of 11 countries, and of which UNDF is one of the 11 Forums of NBD, one per country (i.e., Burundi, DRC, Kenya, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda).

Professor Waswa Balunywa loved critical thinking. So did I and still do. Creativity, Initiative, Innovation and imagination, were the trademarks of Balunywa. If I have not preached these as critical human resources, I have also deployed them. So, there was a good degree of congruence between Waswa Balunywa and myself. In how to develop a character from within rather than from without. If I have knowledge, wisdom, understanding and insights unlike others of my orientation it is this stance, plus God’s grace, that is responsible. The same seems to apply to Prof. Waswa Balunywa.

But more important, Waswa Balunywa’s dad, the late Ali Balunywa, and my own dad, the late Charles Afunaduula Ovuma, worked together in the Kyabazinga’s Government in the 1960s before Milton Obote abolished the semi-federal institution, alongside the federal entities of Ankole, Buganda, Bunyoro and Toro. Ali Balunywa was the Administrative Secretary of Busoga and Charles Afunaduula was the Speaker of Busoga Lukiiko, and later Chairman of the Busoga Education Committee. They interacted a lot and reached decisions together regarding the funding of the Lukiiko, the Education Committee, and the associated school system. They were both behind the evolution of  Namasagali College as decision-makers and members of the Board of Governors of the College, during the early reign of Fr. Damian Grimes as Headmaster.

Besides, Balunywa’s uncle, Sheikh Annas Kinyiri was, like me, a Commissioner with the Presidential Policy Commission (PPC) of the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) from 2000 to 2005, alongside people like Cecilia Ogwal, Dr James Rwanyarare, Prof. Patrick Rubaihayo, Prof, Jethro Opolot, Prof. Adonia Tiberondwa and Henry Mayega, who rose to become its Vice-Chairman. His other uncle, Kirunda Kivejinja, was a friend of the Charles Afunaduula family until his death, and, before his death, he was the Chief mourner at the burial of my brother, Moses Wasedde-Mwavu, a former official of the Uganda Electoral Commission (UEC). I interacted well with Kirunda Kivejinja and learnt a lot from him.

Most people know Professor Waswa Balunywa more in connection with his academic and business education orientations than his human pro-people nature. His two homes – one in Entebbe and another in Kasolo, Iganga, were “beehives” of people of all ages, many at school or University. When I visited his Entebbe home at his own invitation before seeing my ophthalmologist at Mengo Hospital, I found many university students and some lecturers doing digital research. One could not fail to notice that his home was an extension of MUBS although it was also true that a Waswa Balunywa ecological system was distinctly evident, with flows of energy, information and materials. His whole home compound was full of trees, snakes, lizards, and birds of different species. Fresh air and variety of life is what I was treated to. Besides, Waswa Balunywa the academic and principal did not exist at his home. He interacted extremely well with all. I never visited Kasolo when he was there but I was briefed that what was obtained in Entebbe was also obtained in Kasolo. I was proud of him.

After being discharged from the hospital, I decided that this time round I should use public means but take the trouble to ensure that my mask was on all the time, my hands were sanitised and social distancing was observed. At nearly 72 then, I knew I was vulnerable to Covid 19. I had wanted to be in Nawaka by Friday 28th March 2021, but somehow without prior thought, I decided that I should leave Greater Kampala by public means the following day. I later learned that it was God’s decision, not mine. Knowing who Professor Waswa Balunywa was, if I had asked him to send me his personal vehicle to take me to my rural home, he would have quickly positively responded. But I said to myself, “Not this time”. This too was not just my decision. I will show you why.

Saturday morning at about 8 am, I boarded a taxi, the driver of which observed the Ministry of Health, Guidelines strictly to Iganga town. It was the first time in a very long time I came to terms with the new truism that a journey – which used to cost a traveller on a taxi Shs.9000/- before the Covid-19 pandemic was now costing Shs. 20,000/- from Kampala to Iganga. I concluded that the Government needed to tell people from rural areas not to travel to the cities. Covid-19 had already condemned many to sedentary life due to hiked taxi and bus fares.

Too much vehicle traffic made the journey too long and too tiresome. I abhorred another long, arduous and tiresome journey by bus to my rural home. Jesus was right, “Give your burden to me”. I surrendered the journey to Jesus Christ. When I arrived In Iganga, the driver did not stop his vehicle where I said he should. He stopped where he chose he should. When he opened the door, I was surprised to see someone with a mask on, which made it difficult for me to establish who he was. It was as if he had been waiting for me.

He said, “That is the one I want,” while pointing to me.

I had not told anybody to wait for me.

“Who is this man?” I asked myself.

On closer look and careful attention to his voice, I realised it was my pastor in Nawaka. He helped me down the vehicle.

I asked him, “Are you going to Nawaka?”

He answered in the positive. When he answered that way, I knew he was driving Nawaka because he had a vehicle.

Indeed, he inquired, “Where is your luggage?”

I asked the driver to give the luggage to my pastor.  I told him that I wanted to buy a few things from the nearest supermarket. He said,

“Okay do and when you finish wait for me in front of the supermarket. Let me put your luggage in the vehicle. I should be with you in 20 minutes”.

So, it was. In exactly 20 minutes he was back. He opened one of the back doors as he was saying:

“I am going with my wife. We shall pick from my Iganga home”.

I jumped in, and off we went. After picking up his wife, it was a smooth drive all the way. But before dropping me at my residence, the Pastor did not withhold a counsel, which I thought was divinely inspired;

“Mzee, do not waste your time and energy trying to be rich. Just eat well, drink natural juices and continue to love and worship God. You will enjoy your later life. If you waste time and energy trying to get rich, you will get stressed. If you eat badly and drink unnatural juices, you will have a weak, unhealthy body and live on medicines, which will further compromise your health”.

Miracles are still happening.

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Written by Oweyegha Afunaduula (3)

I am a retired lecturer of zoological and environmental sciences at Makerere University. I love writing and sharing information.

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