by Abdul-Wahid Kakande
Prince Badru Kakungulu Heights stands imposingly on Kibuli hill, adding to Kampala’s ever changing skyline. The building immortalises a vision nurtured 88 years ago by Prince Badru Wasajja Kakungulu, to promote the education of Ugandan Muslims.
Threatened by the conversion to Christianity of their children who enrolled in schools that had been established by the colonial government, Muslims opted to keep away from secular schools.
To better opportunities for the Muslim community, Prince Kakungulu and his peers formed the Uganda Muslim Education Association (UMEA) in 1936 to take care of the educational needs of the Ugandan Muslims.
The association established schools where Muslims would feel comfortable taking their children to achieve both secular and Islamic religious education.
“Prince Badru Kakungulu much as he appreciated the concerns of these people, he was convinced that the way forward for the Muslim community was to embrace secular education. So, he and others put it upon themselves to create this association to moblise the Muslims of Uganda at that time to embrace formal education,” Prince Nakibinge, his son, said.
“We did not have schools at that point in time, so their main task was to establish schools, and started with one at Kibuli,” he added.
With a grant of $12 million (Shs 45.7 billion) from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB), Prince Kassim Nakibinge – Kakungulu’s hier donated a 5-acre piece of land on which the complex stands.
The complex was commissioned on May 30 by the First Lady and Education minister, Janet Kataaha Museveni who paid tribute to Prince Kakungulu’s foresightedness.
“We honour the memory of the late Prince Al-Haji Badru Wasajja Kakungulu, who founded UMEA, out of a burden for the education of Muslims in Uganda,” she said.
“We recognize him for his hard work and foresightedness in seeing the need to plan for the growth and spread of education over 88 years ago, for generations of Muslims in Uganda,” she added.
She praised the Association’s leadership for its wise and timely realization of this extraordinary vision, which speaks to its foresight and wisdom.
“We appreciate UMEA leadership for choosing to invest in the best legacy that we want to possibly leave for the next generation,” Mrs Museveni said.
She urged other stakeholders in the education sector to copy a leaf and opt for financial independence and self-sufficiency, raising resources to support the education of Ugandan children without foreign influences.
