Country’s Short-Lived First Lady Bows Out

The Observer (Kampala)

Michael Mubangizi

1 June 2011

A schoolmate at the time, former Kiboga woman MP, Rhoda Kalema, told The Observer that Hannah Lule was among the first nine female students at Budo when it was made a mixed school in the 1930s.

Imagine being asked to make a tribute to a deceased person you never interacted with in life and your only source of information is that she was Uganda’s short-lived first lady for 68 days, which she never even spent in Uganda!

That is what happened to me when I was assigned to write a send-off tribute to Hannah Lule, wife to former president, Prof Yusuf Kironde Lule. I was a child on January 22, 1987 when Hannah returned to Uganda ending her years in exile. That was the day her husband’s remains were returned to Uganda for reburial.

Lule had died on January 21, 1985. and had been buried in London.

According to Wasswa Lule, Hanna’s third child and former MP for Rubaga North, efforts had been made for her to join her husband in State House, when he was removed from the presidency and replaced with Godfrey Binaisa (RIP). Lule was among the many Ugandans who had fled Uganda after Idi Amin’s ascendance to power in January 1971.

When Amin was toppled, Lule, still in exile, was named Uganda’s President at Moshi Conference in April 1979 in Tanzania. Earlier, he had served as Principal of Makerere College (now Makerere University) from 1964-1970, making him the first Ugandan to head it. He was also assistant Secretary General of the Commonwealth Secretariat. In all those years, Hannah was by his side in the various parts of the world he served.

That perhaps explains why she has been less known to most Ugandans even those old enough then. Hannah passed away on Saturday May 28, at Nakasero Hospital. She had been at the same hospital three days earlier for a routine medical check-up but had been discharged. She was laid to rest in Kikajjo, Nakawuka Wakiso district on Wednesday.

“She has been sick, in and out of hospital for some time,” says Wasswa Lule, one of her sons.

But her cause of death differed depending on which of her children I talked to. While Wasswa Lule says Hannah succumbed to a respiratory problem, his brother, Frederick Kironde Lule, and heir to Prof Lule, says she could have died of old age, precipitated by a stroke she sustained sometime back. The different opinions extend to her age.

Most of her children, grandchildren and relatives The Observer talked to estimated that she could have been between 86 and 88 years. Hannah was born to Matia Wamala and Norah Nasimbwa of Kikajjo, Kasenge, Nakawuka and was the second born of four children. And like her husband and all their children, Hannah went to King’s College Budo.

“I don’t know her level of education but I grew up seeing her as a housewife,” says Wasswa Lule.

But a schoolmate at the time, former Kiboga woman MP, Rhoda Kalema, told The Observer Hannah was among the first nine female students at Budo when it was made a mixed school in the 1930s.

“She was older than me and ahead of me in school,” says Kalema who joined Budo in 1937.

Kalema describes Hannah as “very lovely, kind, hardworking, welcoming and generous.”

She also cites her great leadership capabilities as a girls’ prefect (equivalent to head girl) in Budo.

“She was also an active member of the Uganda Council of Women, a women’s movement comprising women NGOs in the late 1950s and early 1960s,” Kalema says.

Her children

Hannah had seven children, most of whom are successful professionals, littered around the world. Only one, Freda Blick, who was Uganda’s Ambassador to Germany, is dead. Two are pharmacists in the UK (Kato Lule and Nora Nakefeero Lule), one a dentist at Yusuf Lule Memorial Hospital in Bakuli (Ntwatwa Lule), while one is a former MP and deputy IGG (Waswa Lule). Others are Salome Lule (lives in the UK) and Fred Kironde Lule (self employed).

However, it was hard getting Hannah’s sons to talk about their mother’s life.

“It’s hard for me to make those emotional comments. If you continue with such questions, I will also leave you here,” Wasswa Lule said.

He, however, described her as a God fearing and disciplinarian woman. His brother, Frederick, described her as a caring and supportive mother:

“She has raised all of us to old age. She would talk to us firmly about life issues.”

The sentiments are echoed by Edith Nambagwe, a councillor for Kasubi Area II. She says Hannah was a down to earth person who interacted with even the lowly in society despite her high profile.

“She was welcoming and she genuinely loved people. She always wanted to be visited.”

Nambagwe adds that Hannah loved to talk and was keen on politics.

“I never bothered to ask her political affiliation, but she would agree with my perspective of political events,” says the DP politician.

As for Hajjati Aida Namuli, sister to Prof Lule, Hannah was the perfect sister-in-law, always loving and caring. Namuli talks of Hannah’s services to the community, revealing how she [Hannah] offered space near their home in Lungujja to the youth for a playground. She also talks of her as a pious person who spent most of her money in Church.

Ugandan Queen?

Yet to other people, Hannah will be mainly remembered for her neatness.

“She always dressed like a queen with gloves and a hat,” said a family friend.

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