The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
How this dynamic Ugandan combined a talent for sports with business, politics and entertainment
THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | Last week, Uganda lost one of its most dynamic citizens, Cedric Babu Ndilima, to a heart complication. On social media, opposition activists, who claim to be humane, went on a rampage celebrating his death and accusing the government and his friends of not saving his life. But let me first eulogize Cedric before addressing myself to the barbarity of these opposition activists.
I met Cedric in late 1992 when I was in S6 at Busoga College Mwiri and he was in S5 at Makerere College. Tall, handsome, and athletic, he immediately caught my attention with his friendliness, free spirit, and boundless energy. He came from an affluent family but did not wear it on his sleeve. His dad, Captain Francis Babu, a retired pilot, was a member of parliament, while his stepdad, Haji Moses Kigongo, was effectively the speaker of parliament. It is rare for kids endowed with such privileges to develop mature judgment, yet Cedric defied the odds and became the exception.
A rigorous and excellent tennis player, he got a sports scholarship to study in the USA and was absent from Uganda for many years. We reconnected in 2007 when he returned and settled in Uganda. Over the last 18 years, I got to know him better, relate to him more, and have long conversations with him about our country. What impressed me most about him was his optimism and public-spiritedness. Even when hope seemed lost, Cedric never lost his optimism that it was within us to build a better Uganda.
So, he organized Ugandans around sports, which he saw as a uniting force. Sports, like entertainment, brings people of all walks of life together. Cedric didn’t discriminate and mentored everyone in sports. He loved entertainment and played a lead acting role in a local television series. Then he indulged in business and became very successful as well. By 30, Cedric was making multimillion-dollar deals in real estate in Ireland. His biggest reversal of fortune was the 2008 financial crisis, when he lost millions of dollars in a real estate deal. Yet even when dealt a heavy blow, Cedric did not lose his optimism or faith in life. So, he dusted himself off and launched himself into yet another effort to do more business.
He married an amazing Irish lady, Allison, and they had three great kids: Amani, Cillian, and Shema. Like many things about Cedric, their wedding story is like a movie. They went to a city hall in Belfast to register their marriage (wedding). They were two young lovebirds and were told they needed a witness. They walked outside the hall and found a young student going to school with her backpack and asked if she could be their witness. She agreed and walked back into the hall, and they were wedded. From there they went to a nearby McDonald’s for lunch.
That was Cedric. He was not a usual person. He was exceptional. As Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba said at his burial, Cedric always defied the odds. Most children from Uganda’s elite families despise politics and keep away. This is one reason why riffraffs, ruffians, scoundrels, etc. dominate our politics, especially opposition politics. However, Cedric distinguished himself from his peers. In 2020, he decided to run for MP Kampala Central. He walked around every single neighborhood in Kampala and established an elaborate network of people to rally support. He surprised everyone when he won the NRM primary as the party’s flag bearer.
In the January 2021 general election, Cedric did better than expected even though he lost—for obvious reasons. NRM is not a popular party in our city—for the right reasons. Yet Cedric had the courage to stand by his convictions. Indeed, he had less money and little support from the NRM. Optimistic forever, Cedric was not deterred by this loss. This year, he was planning to run again on the NRM ticket, and he was convinced he would win. Had he lived, it is very possible he would have realized his dream. I suspect it is Cedric who inspired his very close friend, Alan Kasuja, to return from BBC in London and run for mayor of Kampala. A tall, brilliant giant of a man, Alan is one of those great gifts luck sends to a country. In this election, he wants to challenge Erias Lukwago.
Cedric’s public-spiritedness took him into media in 2017, where he began a television show on UBC. I was one of his first guests. He used the show as a platform to discuss the future of Uganda, looking at both politics and business. He hosted the biggest names in both politics and business and gave many Ugandans hope and direction that there were many possibilities for our country. He was a regular commentator on my articles in The Independent and followed current affairs with keenness. In 2023, he was appointed to the PLU Central Committee by our chairman, Kainerugaba, and immediately became a central figure in discussing the future of this organization and the country.
Even though he was very ill, Cedric called me on May 3 to express his condolences when Rajiv Ruparelia died. On May 13, he texted me again to discuss the future of Uganda. Ever optimistic, in his very last text, he told me that we need to get Muhoozi to the presidency, adding, “Only 10 to 15 of us can change the trajectory of Uganda.” I was therefore saddened, but not surprised, that opposition activists, in their hatred for President Yoweri Museveni and his government, and in their shallow little minds, celebrated the death of a man who aspired to build the Uganda they demand.
So, they wrote tall tales about how he was not helped by his friends, especially the first family. Yet both Museveni and Muhoozi each made big contributions to Cedric’s health bill. It’s not my place to announce the amounts here. Cedric did not die because he lacked care. He died because his illness was so complicated there was little chance of saving his life.
Many Ugandans, in their very shallow minds, imagine that once you have a good medical care system, everyone’s life, regardless of the severity of their illness, will be cured. Perhaps they imagine people in countries with the best medical facilities in America and Europe do not die. That is a delusion. Every day, patients in these counties who go to the best hospitals, with the best equipment and world-class specialists, die despite the best efforts. Cedric, RIP.
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amwenda@ugindependent.co.ug
But Mr Mujuni Andrew do you realize that by abusing everyone who doesn’t agree with your political views as being shallow minded you are equally being shallow minded? Honourable Abdu Katuntu during one of the capital radio talkshow programs, The Capital Gang, put it aptly: “when you see two people agreeing all the time, just know that one of them has a big problem”!!
It’s a well known fact that you suddenly changed and chose to dine with the devil who used to torment yoú, ànd even forced your unceremonious departure at the Daily Monitor in 2007, for your economic reasons.
Why would you really think that all of us MUST agree with political views? Is it because you think that you went to more superior academic schools than anyone else in Uganda? Mr Mujuni, majority of Ugandans are wallowing in abject poverty especially in the countryside, many struggling to secure just one meal in a day!
And you very much know the reasons why most Ugandans hate Mr Tibuhaburwa’s dictatorship: the government is literally dysfunctional; runaway corruption, collapsed education, sick healthcare, inter alia. As though that’s not enough. Government inspired terror, enforced disappearances, all forms of torture, all this is to instil fear among the populace, thus far, ensuring life presidency project, which, it’s hoped, will in turn lead to the creation of the “Hima or Tutsi Empire”!!
The Ugandans you call shallow minded, lumpens, hooligans, no single parent would want to sire any of the above. But rather, it’s the environment in which Tibuhaburwa’s government has put in place which has created frustrations.
One question Mr Tibuhaburwa’s propagandaist before I go: around 2009, when you appeared on Kfm’s evening talkshow dubbed ‘Hot Seat’ hosted by my dear friend Charles Mwanguhya Mpagi, as soon as you opened your mouth and said “M7 is the grandfather of corruption……”, the radio talkshow ended there and then because the radio station waves were switched off air by Uganda communications commission, were they right because a shallow minded lumpen (Andrew M9) was speaking garbage?
These shallow minded lumpens pay taxes that the Tibuhaburwa government uses to pay you!!
Ever optimistic, in his very last text, he told me that we need to get Muhoozi into the presidency, adding, “Only 10 to 15 of us can change the trajectory of Uganda.” Definitely for the worse, with a foolish leader and his economic greed handlers in charge. The way Uganda has been destroyed by the current regime and its schemers, sad that Cedric died, but not surprising that many didn’t give a damn or even celebrated one less of your so called “10 to 15.”
I am just finding out that Cedric has passed away. So sad. Like Andrew said despite his fame and coming from wealth I found Cedric always down to earth. I never even knew he had made millions of dollars in Real Estate . I met him always whenever I visited Uganda and he had no airs about him. Rest in peace Cedric
With death comes lots of emotions, question that leave many unsettled If people only treated death as a reality of nature the world would be a better place, but this obnoxious business of sluring eachother won’t do any one any good we are mortals not immortals with that death is inevitable and we are all subject to it
Morals in most ugandans have severely suffered a decline, deficit and decay.how can people be insensitive to such unimaginable levels I grew up as a muganda knowing that I’ll isn’t talked about the dead but the level of self righteousness most people hold is above the roof..we are only equal before God but in the real world some people have head starts and come from advantaged beginning that’s not what they chose but rather what life chose for them … people should let others express their freedoms as fought for by our founding fathers in the constitution.the tendency of acting holier than thou should also be checked.the bible says the measure we put onto others is the very one that will be used against us …ohhh uganda may God uphold theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Morals in most ugandans have severely suffered a decline, deficit and decay.how can people be insensitive to such unimaginable levels I grew up as a muganda knowing that ill isn’t talked about the dead but the level of self righteousness most people hold is above the roof..we are only equal before God but in the real world some people have head starts and come from advantaged beginning that’s not what they chose but rather what life chose for them … people should let others express their freedoms as fought for by our founding fathers in the constitution.the tendency of acting holier than thou should also be checked.the bible says the measure we put onto others is the very one that will be used against us …ohhh uganda may God uphold theeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Despite having a larger than life mum, Cedric has died at a time when the ratings of the elder Babu have continuously gone low and yet for all his loyality, the NRM parry continues to struggle to bag Kampala let alone the cost. In my humble opinion, it is not prudent to think of pacifying Kampala without Capt. Francis Babu. And all the time the powers that be rely on expensive methods and unreliable turn coats to make Kampala governable.
And for our lack of decorum , I stiil place the blame on those in power. If you could recall the casualness with which Mr Nsaba Buturo James announced the death of Obote the former head of state, and the government denying his body safe passage to its final resting place and then Zambia announcing a period of mourning while Uganda was still undecided . That set the national mood up to today.
And finally as you say making or losing a million dollars in the world sets one apart from mere mortals I still think Cedric was an ordinary mortal like many of us only that he had friends who make many enemies.
RIP.