Humanist

My toto (my mother) is is living an amazing life. This is her story.

Before she could fully explore and enjoy her teenage era, she was married to a much older man.

Her husband, my papa, the Chief now rested, so loved her that he could not leave her behind when he was given a scholarship to study abroad.

He insisted that she be part of the offer. Yes, he was that good, the sponsors agreed and sponsored the couple.

Off they went to Plymouth in England, Mrs. Betty Ann Apio Owaraga and Eng. George William Obityo Owaraga.

And for a few years they enjoyed their marriage and first child while they lived abroad. She working as a nurses assistant and he doing his studies.

On return to Uganda, her life is thrown a major curve. There are older children her husband had before he married her.

She agrees that all the children should be brought home and they grow up together, her version of the story goes.

She now has three of her own children, birthed one year apart, and at the same time she has four older children.

In retrospect, no way things did not turn out as they did. Her life as a career air hostess and mother of three was tenable. But as a mother of seven, well.

Anyway, for love, she prematurely ended her air hostess career and became a full time house wife. A great toll on her it took.

But, I guess, it was also the foundation that she needed to strengthen her, when the time came and it became unbearable for her marriage.

Years later, after she had had another three children with her husband, now total six, they decided to separate homes.

She moved to the Mbale home, which was in plan to be their retirement marital home. Near their ancestral marital home in Pallisa.

By the way, the acquisition of the land in Mbale was also an act of her husband’s love for her.

During the Iteso insurgency, toto’s people were in immediate danger. The home in Mbale was built first for them to live safely away from the insurgency.

And then later, when her people could go back to their own homes, it was planned as their retirement marital home.

Her older step children and apparently the subsequent other step children that came along, but primarily the older ones, succeeded in driving a huge wedge in her marriage.

It is her version of the story, and as I learn more, I am inclined to believe her version more and more. I am unlearning and relearning.

Top corner newly arrived at her Mbale home, at her garage with her famous car. With her husband on a visit to Belgium. Her winning campaign poster. And her hey days as a air hostess with the defunct East African Airways.

She arrives on the Mbale scene, still pretty much a young woman. And in those days she was among the very few women whose husbands had bought brand new cars and drove themselves.

It was not a smooth ride, but what she has singly done with the Mbale home is nothing short of amazing!

Most importantly, she made a life in Mbale. She made many friends and community. She played golf and was good at it. She was a Court Assessor and must have done good.

It is no wonder, she was an obvious choice for her village mates of Nabijjo Cell in Mbale Municipality that she should be their Local Councillor.

However, during the current term, she was no longer the one, after she had ceded the position for a younger person, she says.

Guess what, her village mates and the leadership of the ruling party, called on her and requested that she return to serve in the position.

When she told me about it, I expressed my concern that she could be a target for her money to be fleeced in this era of commercialized politics.

But then she told me, she was barely going to spend any money on her campaigns, because she was unopposed.

Appreciating that toto’s children are among the top honchos in the creatives industry in Uganda, her winning campaign poster is borderline insane!

That is toto’s life for you. An amazing life.

And so, I ask you, please put your politics aside and join me in appreciating and congratulating toto for her triumph during the National Resistance Movement Party primaries for the 2026 Elections.

She is nominated unopposed as the flag bearer for the ruling party for the position of the Local Council Chairperson for Nabijjo Cell.