Africa-Press – Uganda. The Mbarara Archbishop emeritus, Paul Kaamuza Bakyenga has died, aged 79 years.
The news of his demise was confirmed by Rev Fr Charles Mutabaruka, the communications director of the Mbarara Archdiocese.
Bakyenga who was the Archbishop of Mbarara from January 2, 1999 until April 25, 2020, died Tuesday morning at Nsambya Hospital in Kampala, where he had gone for routine medical checkups.
He was succeeded by Lambert Bainomugisha as the Catholic ecclesiastical province of Mbarara – comprising the dioceses of Kabale, Kasese, Fort Portal and Hoima.
Sadness has again engulfed us with the passing on of His Grace Paul Bakyenga this morning. He has been my spiritual father, a cheer leader, and counselor to many of us. His Grace has been a rare breed of a preacher whose message could deeply resonate with the congregation. He… pic.twitter.com/BU3GjqYcsr
Early Life and background
A fourth born in a family of 10 children of Sipiriano Kaamuza and Maria Gakibayo of Bumbaire, Igara in Bushenyi District, Archbishop Bakyenga was born on June 30, 1944.
He went to Ibaare Primary School, before he joined Ibanda Preparatory Seminary from 1958 to 1960. He attended his preprimary school in the church building at Bweeza, writing on sand and banana leaves.
“My father was not rich, he grew up an orphan, supporting himself. He never went to school. My grandfather was a pagan. He was not baptised. But my mother had longed for a God-fearing man whom she found in my father,” Archbishop Bakyenga said during the interview at his residence in Mbarara. His mother was a potter.
For Archbishop Bakyenga to enroll into a preparatory seminary, his young brother’s primary education had to be sacrificed so that his father could raise enough money for his studies.
The archbishop said he chose to join the seminary because he was inspired by students of Kitabi, a famous seminary in his neighbourhood, which he passed by on his way to Ibaare Primary School.
“It is not that I wanted to be a priest – that never crossed my mind at the time,” he says. He said the Kitabi seminary students were caring, smart and very good at sports.
In 1961, he joined Kitabi Seminary from Ibanda, and then enrolled at Bukalasa seminary in 1965 for A-Level studies but he did not complete. “At Bukalasa, we got stubborn and we were stopped,” he says.
He then tried to join Radio Uganda as a newsreader in the same year but could not raise transport to travel to Kampala in time for the interview and ended up missing out on the opportunity.
He decided to go to Rushoroza Seminary in Kabale and teach. At the end of the, he was paid Shs390, and he gave his father Shs319, who had become a squatter in Ngomanungi, present day Sheema District, to buy land to settle and feed his family.
His father had left the land in Bumbaire, Igara to his young brother.
Archbishop Bakyenga used the remaining Shs71 to buy a watch.
He then enrolled at Kitigondo to study philosophy but abandoned the course two year after. At this point, Bishop John Baptist Kakubi of Mbarara, sent him to study at St Andrews College in Scotland, where he would obtain a degree in Theology. He was ordained a priest on July 11, 1971 at Mushenga parish at the age of 27. Eighteen years later, 45-year-old Bakyenga was appointed bishop.
He has also served as Chaplain of Ntare School in Mbarara, Rector of Kitabi Seminary, and Rector of Ggaba National Seminary from 1985 to 1989, when he was appointed bishop.
On January 2, 1999, Pope John Paul II appointed Bakyenga archbishop at the age of 55.
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