BY JACK ANDREWS
BUNDIBUGYO: The queen mother of the Obudhigiya Bwa Bwamba cultural institution in Bundibugyo district her Royal Highness Rhoda Kawamala has been laid to rest.
The mother of Lt Col.Martin Kamya, the King of the Obudhigiya Bwa Bwamba, who succumbed to hypertension and diabetes on June 17th, aged 90 years, was laid to rest in a scientific way of only 20 mourners amidst the prevailing cases of covid-19 pandemic at Kawamala Memerial grounds where her husband the late Yeremiya Kawamala was buried.
The Kingdom premier, Mr.Mubulya Wilson, who was the chief mourner, described the departed queen mother as a strong woman who loved development, peace and unity in area.
“during her young hood, she was an expert in handcrafts and she trained many women in the women clubs which were commonly known as CD, she was a member of the mothers Union in church of Uganda and also a tradition birth attendant in 1990s,”Mubulya said
During the requiem mass at Bumadu church of Uganda archdeaconry, one of the mourners, Hon.Richard Gafabusa, the Member of Parliament Bwamba County hailed the late queen mother for her braveness during the Rwenzururu movement struggle that formed the independence of Bwamba-Bakonzo tribes from Tooro Kingdom in 1962
“She died a heroin because she did not advise the husband (late Yeremiya Kawamala) to leave the struggle until the two district status of Kasese and Bundibugyo were acquired on 11th April 1974”,Gafabusa said
Meanwhile, the Member of Parliament for Bughendera county Hon.Kiiza Moses Acrobert asked Cultural leaders to rally their subjects on government programs that aim at poverty eradication.
“I call upon leaders at all levels to sensitize the public on the fight against covid-19 pandemic, and also I ask our cultural leaders to encourage our people embrace government programs of fighting poverty,”Acrobert said.
The Bundibugyo Resident District Commissioner Mr.Asiimwe Amos applauded the public for heeding to the presidential guidelines for burial ceremony during this period of covid-19.
On June 6th president Museveni directed that only 20 people be allowed at any burial ceremony to avoid the spread of covid-19.
Rwenzururu movement liberators.
The late Yeremiya Kawamala, father to Martin Kamya the Bwamba King, Late Isaya Mukirania father to Rwenzururu King Charles Wesely Mumbere , and their colleague Peter Mupalya are the three men who led of Bakonzo and Bamba from the Tooro Kingdom parliament(Orukurato) in 1962 to protest the subjugation by the monarchy, leading to the creation of Kasese and Bundibugyo on 11th April 1974 and later the birth of two cultural institutions of Obusinga Bwa Rwenzururu in Kasese and Obudhigiya Bwa Bwamba in Bundibugyo.
