Some months to his death, Prof GW Kanyeihamba communicated to his very good friend the Kabaka of Buganda to once again secure his support for his wish to be buried on the Buziga land. The land belongs to the Kabaka who all along allowed his friend Kanyeihamba to build a house and live on it.
In a bid to reciprocate the compassion and generosity with which Kabaka Mutebi treated him, Kanyeihamba requested to be buried there when he dies. This wish was granted by the Kabaka who went ahead to signal his handlers and minders in Buganda Land Board to process the necessary documentation, permanently evidencing the fact that the land had been donated to the legal icon and not Buganda Royal family’s anymore.
Sources close to him say that three months to his death, Kanyeihamba summoned Norman Tumuhimbise and other Kanyeihamba Foundation officials and told them he had gotten premonition that his death was fast approaching. The Professor, who for years lived a lonely life at his Buziga bungalow, proceeded to communicate the same to the Kabaka. The Kabaka assured him that his offer of the land was irrevocable and would last till the end of time.
Kanyeihamba also explained to the Kabaka how he wished to be surrounded by trees in his eternity and many of these trees had already been specifically planted inside his not-so large Buziga compound.
He explained to the Buganda King how he was inseparable with trees because his journey, on the day he was born as a child, started with trees. And it’s how he got the name Kanyeihamba. He used to explain and tell stories to friends how his mother gave birth to him in a forest where she gone to fetch firewood in the 1930s.
He told the Kabaka he had already determined the tree next to which he wished to be buried and made to rest for an eternity. And family sources now say that Kanyeihamba’s casket will be placed in such a way that that same tree will provide shelter to him into eternity.
All this has since been documented and submitted to the Buziga area local governing authority namely KCCA and, gratefully, all the necessary statutory approvals have been obtained. So, on Tuesday, Prof GW Kanyeihamba, who otherwise hailed from Rubanda district of Kigezi, will be buried as per his full wish/will.
Having been accorded official burial by his National Resistance Movement friend and comrade Gen YK Museveni, Prof Kanyeihamba’s funeral expenses have since been taken over by the GoU.
Prof. Kanyeihamba a Mukiga from Kigezi in Rubanda district loved his culture and could have wanted to be buried in his village home but maybe felt that his grave could not be left so intact than his home in Buziga in Kampala.
Justice Kanyeihamba bows out; government yet to guide on his burial program
He loved to protect the law and sometimes one would think that he is the law, which endeared him to the learned friends and law loving Ugandans and Africans. If Kanyeihamba was to be a preacher man, he would have pushed Satan to the grave by wining so many coverts for and to Christ Jesus-populating heaven.
Prof. Â Kanyeihamba will be missed by different people on the globe especially his family but Kigezi has lost a giant. (ekigogoro in Rukiga). May his soul rest in eternal peace.
