Who is Rhoda Kalema? Born 96 years ago, Rhoda was one of 24 children of Martin Luther Nsibirwa, who was twice appointed Katikkiro (Prime Minister) of the Kingdom of Buganda in Uganda.
Kalema attended Gayaza Junior School for a year, and then King’s College Budo for the remainder of her primary and secondary schooling.
She enrolled in a commercial course in secretarial training, and worked as secretary and bursar at Gayaza High School until 1949.
In 1950, she married William Kalema, a teacher at King’s College Budo who later became a renowned politician and Government Minister of Commerce.
In 1955 she commenced a one year course in Social Work and Social Administration at Newbattle Abbey, an Adult Education College in the United Kingdom, followed by a Diploma in Social Studies at the University of Edinburgh.
Political career
In 1961, Grace Ibingira and Adoko Nyekon initiated Rhoda Kalema into the Uganda People’s Congress.
She was a junior minister of Culture and Community Development in Binaisa’s regime. However, after the death of her husband in 1972—he was abducted and killed during Idi Amin’s regime. she gave up political participation until 1979 when, after Idi Amin’s downfall, she joined the National Consultative Council (NCC) formed by the Uganda National Liberation Front under Edward Rugumayo, as one of two female representatives.
In 1980 she was one of the founding members of the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM).
She was arrested three times by the State Research Bureau: on January 23, 1979; on February 21, 1981 (when she and other politicians were arrested after numerous attacks on police stations and on February 4, 1983.
She became Deputy Minister of Public Service from 1989 until 1991 under President Yoweri Museveni. In 1994, she stood for the Constituent Assembly elections as the Kiboga representative, and defeated 8 male opponents after scooping two thirds of the entire vote.
She later retired from politics after grooming a number of notable politicians such as Ruth Nankabirwa, the Chief Whip in Uganda’s Cabinet.
Rhoda Kalema was honoured in 1996 by Uganda’s Forum for Women in Democracy “as a transformative leader”.
On March 13, 2018, she received the Sudreau Global Justice Lifetime Achievement Award from the Pepperdine University School of Law and the Ugandan Judiciary.
My Life is But a Weaving
As a writer and gifted story teller, Rhoda published her book-My “My Life is But a Weaving,” Rhoda, weaves a beautiful tapestry of her journey in faith through decades of service and sacrifice.
In the book, she recounts life as a student at King’s College Budo in the 1930s and 1940s. At Budo, she gets a taste of leadership as a girls’ prefect and experiences tragedy with the loss of her sister, Sara, in a lightning strike in the hills of Budo. Rhoda’s father, Katikiro (Prime Minister) Martin Luther Nsibirwa, is felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1945 at Namirembe Cathedral.
In 1950, Rhoda married William Wilberforce Kalema, a Budo teacher, who served as a minister in the first Obote government. In 1956, she joined the Uganda Women’s Council, embarking on a lifelong commitment to improving the status of women in Uganda. In 1972, a year after Idi Amin seized power in a coup, her husband William disappeared, never to be found.
Through immense personal loss, Rhoda finds her purpose serving God and her country. She writes of digging a well in Kyebando as representative of the National Consultative Council after the Amin regime, campaigning as an MP for Kiboga, and serving on the Constituent Assembly in 1994.
As a pioneer in the Uganda Women’s Movement, her character and courage shine through this terrific book. Her example of selfless service to the country will inspire generations to come.
Mayanja is an Investigative Journalist, Political and Human Rights activist
