By Brian Mugenyi
Despite being well into his golden years, former Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi shows few signs of slowing down. Serving as Special Envoy to the President on Political Affairs, Ssekandi continues to maintain an active official schedule—including a recent private engagement with Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja—while remaining deeply anchored in the grassroots development of his home district, Masaka.
According to his State House private secretary and personal assistant, Oscar Mutebi, Ssekandi regularly reports to office to execute assignments entrusted to him by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, particularly those aimed at fostering political reconciliation. Yet, back home in Bukoto Central and the wider Masaka District, residents and local leaders say his true legacy lies in decades of quiet, behind-the-scenes community development.
“By nature, he is not a man of publicity and prefers to do the development under cover before it gets out,” Masaka District Chairperson John Kakande said in an interview, capturing a sentiment widely shared across the rural sub-counties of Kyanamukaka and Kyesiiga.
Powering Rural Communities and Landing Sites
Among the most transformative interventions attributed to Ssekandi is rural electrification. Local accounts indicate that between 2006 and 2011, he lobbied for power extensions across Bukoto Central, with further connections reaching remote areas—including vital Lake Victoria landing sites—between 2011 and 2020. For rural trading centres and fishing communities, reliable electricity has catalyzed small-scale enterprise, extended business hours, and improved local security.
Emergency Relief and Agricultural Support
In a district reliant on seasonal farming, Ssekandi’s interventions have frequently targeted household food security and commercial agriculture. During a severe 2006 dry spell that triggered acute food shortages in Kyesiiga, he distributed emergency food relief to vulnerable families.
Beyond immediate relief, he has invested in farming households through the provision of cattle, bean seeds, and roughly one million coffee seedlings facilitated alongside the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA)—an initiative aimed at expanding commercial coffee gardens and boosting rural incomes.
Opening Up Roads and Transforming Kyanamukaka
Improved transport infrastructure has also been central to the area’s transition. Ssekandi is widely credited with lobbying for the tarmacking of the eight-kilometre road linking Kamuzinda to Kyanamukaka, helping transform Kyanamukaka from a quiet village into a bustling town council and commercial hub. Local leaders further note that he previously deployed a grader using personal resources to clear feeder roads ahead of formal government works, easing market access for farmers.
Healthcare, Education, and Community Institutions
Ssekandi’s footprint extends deeply into social services and local institutions:
- Healthcare: In 2020, he helped extend ambulance services to Kyanamukaka and neighboring areas, bridging a critical gap in emergency medical transport alongside broader council health outreach highlighted by Town Council Mayor Zaina Nakidde.
- Education and Youth: Mutebi notes that Ssekandi has championed vocational training and secondary education, supporting St. Mugaga Secondary School with infrastructure upgrades, television sets, and office furniture. He also backed the Bukoto Central Youth Link Group with capital and farming inputs—including coffee seedlings, beans, and iron sheets.
- Religious Institutions: Between 2001 and 2006, he donated 200 iron sheets to Kkindu Church, returning in 2019 to support the construction of the priests’ residence and church facilities.
Ten Acres for Masaka’s Administrative Future
Perhaps Ssekandi’s most enduring institutional gift is his donation of 10 acres of land at Kyambazzi in Kyanamukaka to house permanent Masaka District headquarters. For years, district departments operated out of scattered, rented premises, including Buganda Kingdom properties. While the donation spares the government substantial land-acquisition costs, local observers emphasize that its full public value will depend on timely construction and prudent stewardship of public funds.
“He is a grandfather, a teacher, and also an ambassador of development,” Mutebi said. Ultimately, Ssekandi’s decades-long record offers a blueprint for leveraging national influence for local transformation—measured not by press conferences, but by tarmac roads, powered landing sites, thriving coffee farms, and permanent public institutions.
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