Summary:
- According to the burial program, Basulwa will be laid to rest at his ancestral home in Kiyuni, Mubende District, on Thursday, January 2, 2025.
NEWS: Sam Basulwa, the long-serving former Education Officer for Greater Kabale District, passed away on Sunday, December 29, 2024, at the age of 75.
According to the burial program, Basulwa will be laid to rest at his ancestral home in Kiyuni, Mubende District, on Thursday, January 2, 2025.
Julius Mucunguzi, the Head of Communication and Public Relations at the Uganda Electoral Commission, eulogized Basulwa as a remarkable man who profoundly impacted his life.
Mucunguzi recounted meeting Basulwa in 1993 when he was a Senior Four student at Lake Bunyonyi Secondary School.
“Basulwa was a giant in body, spirit, and friendship,” Mucunguzi said. “He found me at Bwama Island, where Lake Bunyonyi Secondary School is located, during a retreat he had organized with a group of friends called the Frabees short for Fraternal Bees a community of elders in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.”
The Frabees, Mucunguzi explained, were a close-knit group that had maintained their bond for decades. On that particular retreat to Lake Bunyonyi, Basulwa’s warmth and generosity sparked a lifelong friendship.
In 1994, Basulwa invited Mucunguzi to spend holidays at his government residence on Makanga Hill in Kabale.
“As a peasant boy from Ryabirengye, Bukinda, Rukiga, I suddenly found myself living in a cemented house near the iconic White Horse Inn, eating toast and sausages,” Mucunguzi recalled.
Basulwa’s children, Geoffrey Ntege, Irene, Flower, Joseph Kasumba, and Billy Best Basulwa, treated Mucunguzi like family, fostering a relationship that remains strong to this day.
Mucunguzi further recounted how Basulwa, along with the late former Prime Minister and Vice President, Dr. Samson Babi Mululu Kisekka, supported him through school.
“They shopped for everything I needed for school, including a four-inch Vitafoam mattress, bedsheets, shoes, and other essentials. They even gave me UGX 80,000 a significant amount at the time which left me with a balance after all my purchases,” he said.
During the following holiday, Basulwa facilitated Mucunguzi’s first trip to Entebbe and introduced him to the Kisekka family.
Mucunguzi spent three weeks at the Kisekka family’s home in Temangalo, Wakiso District, where he gained valuable life skills in baking and poultry keeping.
Reflecting on their 31-year friendship, Mucunguzi expressed profound gratitude for Basulwa’s mentorship and generosity. “Basulwa shaped my life in immeasurable ways. He will be greatly missed.”
