President Yoweri Museveni has paid tribute to the late Adonia Rwakanuuma whom he said was a very hard working person who lived a purposeful life. The President urged his children and the young generation to emulate their late father’s life and work for the transformation of Uganda.
Mr. Rwakanuuma (74), who was President Museveni’s cousin, died of kidney failure at Mayanja Memorial Hospital in Mbarara Municipality on Thursday 19/7/2012 after a short illness.
Addressing mourners during the late Rwakanuuma’s burial at Kabaale village in Kamuri Parish, Isingiro Town Council yesterday, President Museveni said that because the deceased disliked living in poverty and had unequivocal love for farming especially cattle keeping, he had as early as 1959 crossed from Uganda to Tanzania in search of vast grazing land had by 1967 when the President visited him in Tanzania, multiplied his stock to several hundreds of heads of cattle.
Mr. Museveni said that even after he had advised him to come back to Uganda and stop living a nomadic life, the late Rwakanuuma easily accepted the advice and worked with a lot of determination to develop himself in a settled lifestyle, educated his family and built permanent homesteads.
The President, therefore, advised the late Rwakanuuma’s children to take on from where their father has stopped since he had laid a good foundation for them as most of them were educated and their parent had left a lot of resources for them and the entire family on which to start.
Mr. Museveni credited his late cousin as a good administrator who loved and treated his children and all members of his family equally and acted as a pillar of unity within his family and clan.
The President used the occasion to strongly urge all Ugandans to always do periodical medical examinations to ascertain their health status. He revealed that the medical report from Mayanja Memorial Hospital indicated that it was possible to save the life of Adonia Rwakanuuma if he had been doing regular medical examination or even had reported to the medical facility in time for attention.
He also asked the population to manage their body weight and care much about their diet noting that obesity and lack of enough water in the body system were some of the causes of kidney malfunction and failure.
The late Rwakanuuma, who is survived by 30 children and several grand children, was described by his children and family members as a person who treasured education, love, children, was an honest person who at several occasions reminded his own children and other young people to always trace the origin, roots and heritage of their fore-parents. He was also known to be an excellent and model farmer who was a good example to the rest in the area.
Mr. Bright Rwamirama, State Minister for Animal Industry and also area MP, said that the late Rwakanuuma was a disciplinarian, a hard worker, God fearing and a person who led a purposeful life. He said that his area, Isingiro as a district the Ankole and Karagwe regions, will miss him as an individual as well as his counsel and valuable advice.
Sign up below to get the latest updates from State House Uganda by email.