Remembering Brig Noble Mayombo
Noble Mayombo and his wife Juliet at an event where the deceased was being honoured.FILE PHOTOs
IN SUMMARY
It is seven years since Brig Noble Mayombo passed on. The Minister in charge of the Presidency and Kampala Capital City pays homage to the man he called mentor.
I will forever feel touched by the work of his wise counsel and knowledge that he imparted in us during the late 1990s in our universities.
It was always a great moment to receive Mayombo in the
lecture theatre at Mbarara university in the late evenings after our dinner as he would be on his way to the Rwenzoris to track and attack ADF. Though time bad and ready for combat operations against insurgents, he would never let us down as we waited for him so eagerly at the university campus.
The following day, Friday, April 27, 2007, he was taken to Kampala Imaging Centre for a scan and then to International Hospital Kampala. It was reported that when he later became unconscious on Saturday, the brigadier was put on a life support machine and attended to by a team of Cuban, Israeli and Ugandan doctors. On this same day, he was flown to Nairobi aboard the President’s jet where he was admitted to Aga Khan Hospital. While there were reports on April 31 that his condition had improved, Brigadier Mayombo was pronounced dead the following day, Tuesday at about 3pm. It was May 1, 2007.
At the time of his death, he was married to Juliet Mayombo and had six children. The deceased was also the older brother to retired Maj Okwir Rwaboni, the former western youth Member of Parliament. The brothers had a very close relationship.
Mayombo was born in Kabarole District in 1965 to Canon James Rwabwoni and Beatrice Rwaboni Abwooli [Both are now deceased]. For his O and A- Level education, he attended Nyakasura School in Fort Portal and Ntare School in Mbarara respectively before joining Makerere
to study law. Here, he exhibited good debating skills which he blended with his good sense of humour.
At the age of 20, he left the university to join the National Resistance Army (NRA) in their guerrilla war against the Obote II regime and the military Junta that expelled him.
When NRA finally captured power in 1986, he returned to the university to complete his studies and finally graduated with a law degree. He then got a diploma in legal practice, a requirement for practising law in the country. Studies did not stop here for him. He went on to get a Master’s degree in law specialising in human rights law from Makerere University.
At 29, he was the youngest member of the Constituent Assembly in 1995 where he represented the military in the House during the formulation of the new constitution. He resigned in 2006 to take up the position of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence. One notable trait about him was his outstanding loyalty to President Museveni.
Notably, he was one of the fastest rising officer in military ranks from lieutenant, captain, major, lieutenant colonel to full colonel by 2004. In October 2005, he was promoted to brigadier at his taking on the permanent secretary’s job in the Ministry of Defence.
At the time he was the Director of Military Intelligence, there were reports of him torturing suspected rebels. During this time, the different security organs were being accused of the creation and maintenance of safe houses where arrested suspects were being detained beyond the 48-hour limit as prescribed by the law without charges being brought in court.
What they remember about Noble Mayombo
Norbert Mao, President of Democratic Party (DP)
“He was my classmate at Makerere University where both of us were doing law. He loved wearing Kaunda suits, reading and joking a lot. We continued being very good friends even at the time we both contested for the guild presidency in 1990. He had a high level of intelligence and capability of making people laugh. He was also very argumentative and generous. He was such a remarkable nationalist.”
Hassan Kalule, Managing Director of Shift Uganda Investments
“He was destined for greater heights because of his great leadership skills. I remember I attended a conference in Munyonyo where he was one of the speakers. I remember him saying that it was the youth who were responsible for uplifting our state. He was concerned about the welfare of the youth in this country.”
Capt Mike Mukula, mp SOROTI MUNICIPALITY
“He was a true son of this country. He was an epitome of humility and exhibited a lot of humour too. Mayombo used to love joking a lot. Despite his busy schedule, he always made it a point to return phone calls and spend time with his family. The other aspect about him was that he was very humble. For example he once tied the President’s shoelaces after noticing that they were loose. We miss him.”
Ethel Kiwanuka, Construction engineer
“He was President Museveni’s blue eyed boy because of his loyalty to him. He was a very good debator. His arguments contained a lot of sense. Also, he was very knowledgeable about the things that were happening in this country. I just do not like the rumour that he was poisoned. Brigadier Mayombo had a great life ahead of him.”
van Bwowe, Makerere University Guild President
“From what I heard, the late Brigadier Noble Mayombo was a great man in this country. He was very intelligent and he represented the new breed of leaders who could take this country forward.”
Solomon Serwanjja, journalist
“He was such a brilliant man yet very humble. I remember watching one of the interviews he had with an international journalist where he was speaking about child soldiers. His responses to the reporter were straight forward and contained a lot of meaning. He was a great man.”
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He would always be in a rush but would always insist, in his humorous way, that he would only be with us for only 30 minutes or else he would be taken to the court martial for desertion. It was a moment of fun and learning with him.
He would speak to us eloquently. His quick reference to provisions of the Constitution and other laws off head without opening any page of a book or document was amazing.
The lecture theatre would be dead silent all through his talk and students would spontaneously applause him after his speech in a standing ovation. I must painfully say we miss you dearly comrade Noble and we shall continue to search for knowledge and wisdom in memory of your legacy.
In defence of your thoughts, we shall continue to preach the NRM anti-sectarian and pan-African ideology that you so passionately spoke about time and again. Noble never accepted to be defined by trivialities of tribe, religion and cheap scheming. He despised all these and stood above all those that fanned them. He supported and listened to all that approached him without probing where they came from. He taught how to look at society broadly without being compromised by either blood or clan relations. That was a powerful ideological foundation that he built for us as a country. He enabled quite a number of my contemporaries at university then to understand the NRM’s definitive ideology and consequently mentored us to become active NRM cadres. Many of us owe our political journeys to him. He stood for knowledge, logic and intellectual engagement; tenets that are so rare now in our elite society. He despised reactionaries and discouraged hate speech. He never at any one time vowed to revenge against opponents even when he had the means to do so as I see and hear some of our aspiring leaders promising to do with much vengeance.
On the contrary, Mayombo preached dialogue and discussion based on honest principles and not on cheap compromises. No wonder he embraced everybody and called him/her a comrade no matter whether that person formed opposition to his opinions or not. I, for, example remember the honest testimony the former Leader of the Opposition gave in Parliament as we paid tribute to Noble. Hon Ogenga Latigo spoke of how he had been meeting Noble at his house many times dialoguing on a number of issues of national interest.
Noble in his simplicity exuded confidence and deep understanding of societal issues. He cared to know what is affecting society in all spheres even when that seemed to be out of his realm as a military officer. He confronted every situation, however problematic it seemed, with solutions and alternative approaches without any form of disorientation. He had clarity of mind and was never ambiguous both in his speech and actions. He never engaged in blame-games and escapism, character assassination and intrigue; dirty vices and tendencies, that I see some leaders engage in.
Neither did he ever spend any minute scheming for self-advantage against other comrades. He never allowed at any one time emotion or any sentiments to influence his world view and judgment. He was a perfect and brilliant gentleman that truly lived a life of a patriot. He allowed proper revolutionary methods to guide and define his work ethic and style. Noble wherever you rest; just know that we still struggle to fill that gap you left. Every other day, there is reason and cause to say “How we wish Noble was here”.
Call to his mentees
To all those who knew Noble and liked his views; this is my message to you as we celebrate the seventh year of his passing on:
Can we rise up and work to build a brand of political leadership that truly reflects those values he stood for? Can we treasure knowledge and always search for it before we speak? Can we hate and despise political posturing that only trades in foam as opposed to substance? Can we as the political elite stop exploiting the citizenry by inciting them on wrong ideologies of tribe and religious sectarianism for our own selfish agendas? Can we start trading in politics of substance, politics of the answer not the anger?
Can we hate wrong even when it’s massively popular and stick to what is right? Can we give credit where it’s due and offer criticism that is constructive and that seeks to offer an alternative as opposed to lamentations and being merchants of hopelessness even when God is blessing our country abundantly? Can we speak against tendencies that work against our motherland country and stand up for national interest? Can we fight corruption genuinely without using it as a political tool in our contestations and thus only trade in rhetoric?
Can we stop despising our own country with its God given endowments and further stop the immoral tendency to prefer what is foreign? Can we as leaders of different political parties stand up to account on what our thinking is, in response to the various social challenges affecting our people? Why should for example any leader be silent on telling his supporters about HIV and its attendant problems?
Mentorship
The tendency by political leaders to shy away from providing guidance to those that follow them on critical social and economic issues that determine their livelihoods and only concentrate on rehearsing their grievances in the media for visibility against their political opponents is not only being selfish but clearly shows lack of leadership. Can we debate issues and not quarrel? Can we allow logic, reason and not emotion to guide the way we conduct business as leaders? Can we as leaders stand up for the truth and not form opinions based on the game of the gallery and populist waves? Noble despised all these.
He believed in real substance and no wonder he promoted and supported many young people with good leadership talents. My counsel to the Rabwoni family is that while you miss and inevitably cry for Noble’s loss, just feel contented that he died a patriot and that during his short life; he managed to touch and inspire many and many either directly or indirectly and the generations of these will never forget his works.
A person can die like Noble did and many will forget about him/her as time goes by, but his ideas will forever live. Bad and wrong personalities like Hitler will always be remembered for their genocidal ideologies while good and great ones like Churchill, Nkrumah and Nyerere too will be remembered much more prominently for their pro-humanity legacies. That will always be Noble Mayombo for us. Rest in Peace Apuli and may the Almighty continue to
Mayombo’s life and death
On the morning of April 26, 2007, Brig Noble Mayombo reported to office to start his day with two meetings. One was with potential suppliers to the Ministry of Defence and the other with technical officers to plan the ministry’s budget to be fed into the national budget that was due in June. He took tea during the meeting breaks. Later, at about 7pm, he left work and went home, postponing some of the work to be done during the following day. It is at home where he complained of stomach pain. When his condition worsened, he was rushed to Kololo Hospital where he was admitted.
