When we arrived at St Mary’s College Kisubi in February of 1985 I was part of a batch of small boys from Buganda Road Primary School which was considered one of the best primary schools at the time never mind that for us we knew it to be actually the best. We were a small batch of people like Samson Kironde, Vincent Makmot, David Kayondo, Yusuf Kirabira, Patrick Sserwadda, Mawejje and a few others I forget.
We genuinely believed we were on another wavelength. After passing Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) with distinctions, kids normally feel they are on cloud nine. The St. Savio Junior School boys also felt the same ,more so because St .Savio Junior School is just further down the hill at Kisubi and is also run by the Brothers of Christian Instruction.
Paul Kyegombe (Kyeggie) was one of the St. Savio boys alongside people like Joseph Semakula, Nelson Kamoga, Patrick Kyamanywa, Richard Bugembe, John Lukwago, Godfrey Semugabi, Kevin Mugisha and some other great guys who have come to be my friends for over three decades now. St. Savio boys feel a sense of entitlement when they come up the hill to St. Mary's . My brother Dr. Peter Kyomuhendo was a St. Savio alumni and he exhibited that air a lot at home. He had come up that same hill two years earlier in 1983.
Paul Kyegombe had been the second best student in the whole country in the PLE exams of 1984 we later learned. He was regarded as extremely brilliant , something we quickly acknowledeged in our first year at Kisubi.
So in our first year in Kisubi there was that rivalry that soon faded when we settled in and we all became students at Kisubi and our primary school mentalities faded. I have always referred to St. Mary’s College Kisubi simply as Kisubi. I, and I believe many of my contemporaries would agree, that when one went to Kisubi there was only one destination - St Mary’s College Kisubi. The Junior school down the hill was simply called Savio. I have never shaken off that mind set. My apologies.
One thing I admired about Paul Kyegombe was his level of organisation. That fella was organised. Right from how he arranged his books in his desk, his handwriting, cleanliness and attention to detail. He was a meticulous fellow, something that was in full display in his class work, paintings and drawings. We used to call revision work ‘cutting numbers’ especially in maths or physics and he was our consultant. Even his rough workings were neat! I believe to date that the level of organisation a kid displays in their work directly affects their performance. I have told my children about the remarkable Kyeggie.
No wonder when we did our O Level exams in 1988 he set another record at Kisubi with six aggregates in six subjects. He went on to set yet another academic record in the A Levels of 1991 when he scored quadruple A's. In Physics Chemistry Maths and Fine Art. Just awesome!.
He was a jovial guy and loved sports. Perhaps one thing that he contributed most to the sports season at Kisubi were his rib cracking cartoons every after a match which he would paste on the window along Kiwanuka House. Woe unto you if your house was on the losing end of a match. Some humourless guys threatened violence but that was all.
He later expanded his humour to social gatherings we would have with girls from Nga (Mt. St Mary's Namagunga) or Bingule (Trinity College Nabbingo) or Sunsas (Nabisunsa Girls). He carried on this art
We genuinely believed we were on another wavelength. After passing Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) with distinctions, kids normally feel they are on cloud nine. The St. Savio Junior School boys also felt the same ,more so because St .Savio Junior School is just further down the hill at Kisubi and is also run by the Brothers of Christian Instruction.
Paul Kyegombe (Kyeggie) was one of the St. Savio boys alongside people like Joseph Semakula, Nelson Kamoga, Patrick Kyamanywa, Richard Bugembe, John Lukwago, Godfrey Semugabi, Kevin Mugisha and some other great guys who have come to be my friends for over three decades now. St. Savio boys feel a sense of entitlement when they come up the hill to St. Mary's . My brother Dr. Peter Kyomuhendo was a St. Savio alumni and he exhibited that air a lot at home. He had come up that same hill two years earlier in 1983.
Paul Kyegombe had been the second best student in the whole country in the PLE exams of 1984 we later learned. He was regarded as extremely brilliant , something we quickly acknowledeged in our first year at Kisubi.
So in our first year in Kisubi there was that rivalry that soon faded when we settled in and we all became students at Kisubi and our primary school mentalities faded. I have always referred to St. Mary’s College Kisubi simply as Kisubi. I, and I believe many of my contemporaries would agree, that when one went to Kisubi there was only one destination - St Mary’s College Kisubi. The Junior school down the hill was simply called Savio. I have never shaken off that mind set. My apologies.
One thing I admired about Paul Kyegombe was his level of organisation. That fella was organised. Right from how he arranged his books in his desk, his handwriting, cleanliness and attention to detail. He was a meticulous fellow, something that was in full display in his class work, paintings and drawings. We used to call revision work ‘cutting numbers’ especially in maths or physics and he was our consultant. Even his rough workings were neat! I believe to date that the level of organisation a kid displays in their work directly affects their performance. I have told my children about the remarkable Kyeggie.
No wonder when we did our O Level exams in 1988 he set another record at Kisubi with six aggregates in six subjects. He went on to set yet another academic record in the A Levels of 1991 when he scored quadruple A's. In Physics Chemistry Maths and Fine Art. Just awesome!.
He was a jovial guy and loved sports. Perhaps one thing that he contributed most to the sports season at Kisubi were his rib cracking cartoons every after a match which he would paste on the window along Kiwanuka House. Woe unto you if your house was on the losing end of a match. Some humourless guys threatened violence but that was all.
He later expanded his humour to social gatherings we would have with girls from Nga (Mt. St Mary's Namagunga) or Bingule (Trinity College Nabbingo) or Sunsas (Nabisunsa Girls). He carried on this art
through higher school where such cartoons would be pasted on the doors of Cube D (dyno). I was once on the receiving end of such a cartoon when Kagaba Muhumuza Nkurukenda tricked me into handing him the girl (chick, was the word) I was dancing with by announcing at the DJ’s desk( not box) that my parents had come to visit me. I remember the DJ was Charles Lubega of Guvnor, an old boy of Kisubi.
He helped me popularize the chess tournament when I was Chess Captain in 1989. He developed an eye catching logo that helped attract juniors and seniors to the tournament. He never really got round to playing chess but I tried to convince him to play. I think he was more interested in the physical games.
Those days people who played various sports for fun or to just break a sweat with out getting into theschool team were called ‘survivors’. I don’t know why that was so. So Kyeggie was also a fellow‘survivor' in table tennis and lawn tennis. Another memory I have of Kyeggie was when ,while ‘surviving’at table tennis outside the main hall under a big jambula tree, he nicknamed me ‘kaps’. A shortening of anot very flattering word. So whenever we would meet in class or the higher school block and even afterthe Kisubi years we called each other ‘kaps’. But it stuck with me.
I never saw him disappointed many times. One time I saw him disappointed stands out like a sore thumb. In form 5, he was set to become the Head Prefect and the Brother Head Master F.X Tinkasiimire blocked his path arguing that he was not Catholic and Kisubi being a Catholic founded school had to have a Catholic Head Prefect. I have never forgotten how that draconian rule was applied.
Later, when we reached form six, being the humorous guy he was, he declared operation brainstorm to pass the 1991 UACE exams. This was a reflection of the Operation Desert storm that the US was conducting against Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Kuwait at the time. I remember we called him Gen. Kyeggie Schwarzkopf after the American Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf who was commander of the Operation Desert Storm.
After acing the UACE exams of 1991 he soon left for the UK and I lost contact with my friend for some years. He later returned briefly and worked with Sentoogo and Partners but then he took off again, this time to the US. I never saw him in the flesh again. I later heard he was an Architect based in Atlanta Georgia. He had also become an accomplished artist which I believe was a profession closer to his heart more than anything. Apparently he was recognised by President Obama.
He had also started a footballteam of ‘survivors’ in Atlanta called the Atlanta Cranes. Recently he was a member of our OBs WhatsApp group but was rarely active. I also found out he had a son Solomon, a spitting image of the guy. I have seen a picture of him with some old boys in the US and learned with distress that he was in a fight with the horrible cancer.
Then yesterday 14th April 2020, the worst news broke that he had lost the fight.
Fare thee well my friend Kyeggie. I know you are in a better place.
Agaba Julius Alfred
MUGWANYA HOUSE 1985-1991
Kampala, Uganda
He helped me popularize the chess tournament when I was Chess Captain in 1989. He developed an eye catching logo that helped attract juniors and seniors to the tournament. He never really got round to playing chess but I tried to convince him to play. I think he was more interested in the physical games.
Those days people who played various sports for fun or to just break a sweat with out getting into theschool team were called ‘survivors’. I don’t know why that was so. So Kyeggie was also a fellow‘survivor' in table tennis and lawn tennis. Another memory I have of Kyeggie was when ,while ‘surviving’at table tennis outside the main hall under a big jambula tree, he nicknamed me ‘kaps’. A shortening of anot very flattering word. So whenever we would meet in class or the higher school block and even afterthe Kisubi years we called each other ‘kaps’. But it stuck with me.
I never saw him disappointed many times. One time I saw him disappointed stands out like a sore thumb. In form 5, he was set to become the Head Prefect and the Brother Head Master F.X Tinkasiimire blocked his path arguing that he was not Catholic and Kisubi being a Catholic founded school had to have a Catholic Head Prefect. I have never forgotten how that draconian rule was applied.
Later, when we reached form six, being the humorous guy he was, he declared operation brainstorm to pass the 1991 UACE exams. This was a reflection of the Operation Desert storm that the US was conducting against Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Kuwait at the time. I remember we called him Gen. Kyeggie Schwarzkopf after the American Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf who was commander of the Operation Desert Storm.
After acing the UACE exams of 1991 he soon left for the UK and I lost contact with my friend for some years. He later returned briefly and worked with Sentoogo and Partners but then he took off again, this time to the US. I never saw him in the flesh again. I later heard he was an Architect based in Atlanta Georgia. He had also become an accomplished artist which I believe was a profession closer to his heart more than anything. Apparently he was recognised by President Obama.
He had also started a footballteam of ‘survivors’ in Atlanta called the Atlanta Cranes. Recently he was a member of our OBs WhatsApp group but was rarely active. I also found out he had a son Solomon, a spitting image of the guy. I have seen a picture of him with some old boys in the US and learned with distress that he was in a fight with the horrible cancer.
Then yesterday 14th April 2020, the worst news broke that he had lost the fight.
Fare thee well my friend Kyeggie. I know you are in a better place.
 |
| Lady Liberty by Paul Kyegombe |
Agaba Julius Alfred
MUGWANYA HOUSE 1985-1991
Kampala, Uganda
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