NTUNGAMO — Mourners at the burial of Mukyara Juliet Jonah Batebekyera, mother of Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government Ben Kumumanya, praised his integrity and long service in Uganda’s local government system.
Mrs Batebekyera was laid to rest on Thursday in Ntungamo District after a requiem mass and vigil attended by relatives, political leaders, public servants, religious leaders and family friends.
Several speakers used the occasion to reflect on Mr Kumumanya’s career, especially his work on decentralisation.
Rushenyi County MP Naome Kabasharira described him as one of the officials who helped shape the system in the early 1990s.
“In 1993, he was one of the architects of decentralisation in local government and he is of undisputed integrity in service,” Ms Kabasharira said.
Her remarks placed his career in the context of the reforms that transferred functions and decision-making from the centre closer to communities.
Mr Kumumanya has spent more than three decades in the local government system and now serves as Permanent Secretary in the ministry that oversees the country’s decentralised structure.
The tributes were not limited to his professional record. Speakers repeatedly pointed to his character and conduct as a public servant.
State Minister for Local Government Justine Nameere praised his responsiveness to elected leaders and his support for anti-corruption awareness.
“Every time I report to him, he responds and attends to my issues immediately,” Ms Nameere said. She called him one of the most responsible permanent secretaries in the sector and said he had helped set the pace on accountability.
The comments come as local governments carry growing responsibilities, including implementation and monitoring of government programmes at district, municipality, town council and parish levels.
A career in decentralisation
Uganda’s decentralisation system is grounded in Chapter 11 of the 1995 Constitution. Article 176 provides for the devolution of functions, powers and responsibilities from central government to local government units and lists popular participation and democratic control among its principles.
Mr Kumumanya has been associated with the system since its formative years. That experience has given him institutional knowledge of how local government evolved from the early 1990s reforms to the present arrangement of districts, cities, municipalities, town councils and lower local governments.
The system is now tightly linked to government’s economic transformation agenda. The Parish Development Model, for example, places the parish at the centre of efforts to move households from subsistence into the money economy. That approach sits alongside the broader emphasis on household wealth creation, including programmes associated with Operation Wealth Creation.
President Museveni has repeatedly stressed the need to shift households from subsistence production into commercial activity, with government programmes expected to raise production, incomes and welfare. Because many of those programmes are implemented at community level, local leaders and technical officials bear extra responsibility to ensure public resources reach intended beneficiaries and that communities help monitor delivery.
Integrity and accountability
Integrity featured prominently in the tributes. Former Uganda Revenue Authority Commissioner General Elly Rwakakooko was among those who praised Mr Kumumanya’s public-service record. Canon Susan Muhwezi also paid tribute. Family members, including his wife Grace Kyosabire, were recognised for their support during the period of mourning.
The emphasis on integrity sits against Mr Kumumanya’s own public calls for stronger accountability in local government. He has previously urged local leaders to protect public resources and ensure that government programmes translate into better services.
Accountability remains central because local governments deliver or coordinate many of the services citizens meet every day: education, health, roads, markets, water and local economic development.
A mother remembered
Although much of the public comment focused on Mr Kumumanya’s career, the gathering was first a farewell to his mother. Family and friends remembered Mukyara Juliet Jonah Batebekyera as the woman who raised the family. The Ministry of Local Government also mourned her, identifying her as the mother of its Permanent Secretary.
The occasion brought together two sides of Mr Kumumanya’s life that rarely meet in public: the senior official whose career has been spent inside Uganda’s decentralised system, and the son burying his mother.
The tributes from political leaders, former officials and religious figures were therefore both messages of condolence and reflections on his work. For Ms Kabasharira, the defining part of that career was his contribution to decentralisation. For Ms Nameere, it was his accessibility, responsiveness and sense of duty. For others, it was his integrity.
As Uganda continues to rely on local governments to bring administration and development programmes closer to citizens, Mr Kumumanya’s three decades in the system give him unusual institutional perspective. At his mother’s burial, however, the emphasis was less on the office he holds than on the person colleagues and political leaders say he has remained: a public servant they associate with service, responsibility and integrity.
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