HE was known by many. Martin Kiyaga, for almost forty years, trained students at different schools. He gave them inspiration, both orally and by his way of life, many found exceptionally amiable.

As one of his favourite phrases, Kiyaga often remarked: “When I am not there, there is nobody to serve, so I must be there.” He slotted it in discussions, to friends usually discouraging him from “straining” with so much.

It was not uncommon for him to come out of a meeting in Kampala, at noon and get on the road to Gulu, for yet another. The few times I saw him come late to a meeting, he had a sound apology – usually of having been to an earlier one.

Privileged to have known a great personality like Kiyaga, I admired his allure. He was a representative of teachers on the executive committee of the Kampala Archdiocese Pastoral Council, while I was on for the youth.

So many times I got the opportunity of working with him on sectoral committees for particular tasks. Usually he would offer members lunch, with his own money. Many times, it was just a soda and couple of bites.

He believed in togetherness. He would say, “Getting together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” Yet even when we often worked together, Kiyaga played bigger roles.

A mover of things, where there seemed to be hardships in securing certain equipment like a public address system, for a function for example, Kiyaga would bring his own – free of charge – or personally hire it for the function. He really lived up to another of his loved phrases, “What I had, I spent. What I kept, I lost. What I gave, I have!”

Eloquence was his other name; humility, his trademark. Despite all the grandeur that ordinarily would have followed with his status, he remained unassuming.

Kiyaga, one of the renowned Rotarians, rubbed shoulders with great people near and far. But, where it necessitated doing some work at a function, like arranging chairs, he would ignore the impeccably fitting and smashing suits he wore often, to get involved.

On January 2, 2010, while we returned to Kampala from the burial of Bishop Adrian Kivumbi Ddungu in Masaka, Fr. Nicholas Kiruma and Helen Nannozi of the Archdiocesan Education Department, Richard Nsamba and I, paid a courtesy call on the bedridden Kiyaga, at his plush home in Kyengera. It is a few meters away from the Mugwanya Summit College, for which he was a founding member and principle.

Intermittently turning to dry tears, and also cracking jokes, he gave us hope of his recovery.
A red wheelchair folded beside his mosquito-netcovered bed, with some chairs for visitors next to it. He told us how several friends were day and night seeing him. Among them were Vice President Gilbert Bukenya, Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala and Kampala Archbishop Cyprian Lwanga.

Many of his friends, including Sudhir Ruparelia and Rotarians were contributing loads of money for his palliative care, of the spine cancer that had reparably damaged his health. In the living room, his wife Josephine and children, often sat, showing no signs of tiredness, receiving visitors, many of who, they just came to know after frequent visits to Kiyiga.

In the night between January 12 and 13, 2010, Kiyaga lost the battle to the cancer, as he was being rushed to hospital for resuscitation. At the requiem Mass at Lubaga, Josephine thanked the Church for allowing to conduct commendation prayers for her husband, who the Archbishop had described as “a man for all seasons!”

The widow recalled, “In 1982, I was here with Martin for the requiem Mass of the late Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga. I am very grateful that you have accepted Martin’s body to lie here for his last Mass.”

Martin Kiyaga was born on July 4, 1951, to the late Pius and Maria-Luiza Namatovu Kiyaga, at Busuubizi, in Mityana. He studied at Lubaga Boys’ Primary School, before joining Mugwanya Preparatory School, Kabojja as one of the pioneer pupils, in 1960.

He had a stint at Nswanjere Junior Seminary, also as a pioneer pupil and thereafter, entered Kisubi Seminary for O’level. He left for St. Henry’s College Kitovu, for his advanced level studies, which he completed in 1972.

Kiyaga was retained there as a teacher for physics, chemistry and mathematics, before joined the university at Makerere. In 1973, he entered university, graduating in 1976, with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, chemistry and mathematics and a diploma in Education.

For fifteen years he taught at Trinity College Nabbingo, where currently a former student of his, Cotilda Nakate Kikomeko, is headmistress. Other schools he taught include seminaries, Kings College Budo, Lubaga Boys’, Lubiri SSS, Maria Gorretti Katende and St. Balikuddembe, Mitala Maria. He was chairman of the board of governors of St. John’s SSS, Nandere and a member on many other boards.

He was the chairman of the Lubaga Cathedral National Foundation (LCNF), an organization for outstanding religious social and political figures. He received numerous local and international awards, for outstanding work from different organisations.

But, for him, while he willed that “when I come to the end of the road, and the sun has set for me, cry not for a soul set free… miss me a little, but not too long…” crowds of people turned up visibly at loss of the admirable teacher. Martin, as many called him, must have hastily left for heaven to serve there too, as there was not among us, one ready to precede him.