Iam called Abius Muhwezi, I come from Kazo in a village called Rwabwonyo, I lost my Dad but my mum is still alive. My Dad was called Enos Rwabutyogo. Born in a family of 12 children and am the 2nd lastborn in my mother’s womb.
There are other children for my step mum and others he got out of wedlock.
My mother’s children are bigger than my step mothers children, because her first born is the same age as my mum’s last born.
When I grew up I realized that my Dad had just left salvation and realized that he had a second wife and I around that same time he separated with her ,and married a third wife that he stayed with until he died.
He built for her a house near our home, they had 4 kids and the children are with my Mum now because their mother claimed for her portion of land and sold it and went away with her kids but later lost everything and the kids were left scattered until my mum said they should call them back.
When I was growing up and starting to understand things, I realized my Dad had left salvation and marrying women and he was wealthy, but as time went on the things started reducing.
My Dad was marrying women, he even started staying in Kazo town with his wife. He was wealthy, he had built four buildings and the house where he was staying with his new wife. Me and my brothers we stayed home with our mum.
We had our property and we were generally ok, he would visit us once in a while, and we were well off, we had banana plantations we had like 200 cows, there is even a place they named after our calves (enyena) Kyenyena ) because they would find them there always.
We were well off generally but when he left salvation he resorted to drinking alcohol and adultery, the devil started using him and he wasted most of the things.
I remember there was a guy who married my big sister, one day while I was looking after my father’s cows ,he came with a big lorry and put 16 cows on that lorry and took them ,his job was to sell cows. He went to Kampala and sold those cows and we never knew where the money went.
On my father’s orders of cause, that guy lived near us so he knew everything about us. We trusted him and my father trusted him too, so he sent him even when he was not around.
I heard that when they brought him the money, he just took only two glasses of waragi and they stole all the money and he never knew who took it. He became too alcoholic that some boys one day. They bought him alcohol and made him sign an agreement that he had sold them his commercial house.
They took it and life started to be hard, because he never liked educating his children so most of my siblings stopped in P6. Almost six of them stopped in P6, one of my big brothers studied up to S.1 term 1. So we looked up to that one as the educated in our family.
He lost almost everything, we were used to having workers all over the place, we did not know how to work but now we had nothing, he had sold everything. We were now left with a few cows at home.
Life became so tough, his young wife left him because he had become too alcoholic and she found new love. When my brothers found out ,they wanted to get her red-handed and beat her, she found out before they could do that and she asked him for her share so she can sell it and go away with her four children.
When my mum and big brothers realized that they were planning to sell the land and the cows to give to his wife ,they refused .My mum went to FIDA and relatives so they can help save the that land for that woman’s kids because they predicted she would eat the money and the kids would suffer.
We went to our paternal uncles and they did nothing, the family that was well off became very disorganized, imagine people who had over 200 cows now only 6 calves were remaining. One time there was a man who came in that village and we welcomed him, so he is the one who was buying the land and the two brothers who were helping were LC1 chairman and LC2 Chairman respectively
That man’s wife was a daughter to my Dad’s friend, so we welcomed him as a relative, but of cause when they told him it was a good deal for him because the land was big and the money was so little compared to the portion of land he was buying
One time they came and arrested my big brother falsely and forged a story that he found them inspecting the land and he wanted to kill them with a spear. They took him to prison, so for him to get out of prison we had to sell three calves out of the remaining six .
We sold them and got him out of the prison. So the guy asked us, you have remained with only three, the one buying is LC1 Chairman, the brother is LC2 chairman and I am the secretary at the Sub County and the Sub county chief is in my hands I feel sorry for you.
Indeed we had nowhere to go, so we agreed to go to FIDA and we had to sell two calves, one stayed. FIDA came and divided for us the land, they gave my step mum her portion and they divided for all of us.
My stepmom sold the land and went away telling us she was going to buy another land and up to today we do not know what happened. This is where she ended. After a while we heard that her first son stays at my uncle’s place, we also heard that the sister is at her mum’s sitter’s place and only the last born was with the mother and the second last born was at her elder son’s place. So they were all scattered.
My mum told my elder brothers to go and get their step siblings because they are the same blood not to leave them to be scattered, whatever little is available they will share with them. Remember only one cow had remained.
We went and got them and brought them back home.
My father was not interested in educating us and only three of us were still in position to go to school.my brother that I follow, me and my younger brother. I was in S1 when my father removed me from school, because he had no money, any more.
We only had one cow i only did first term of senior two and I sat home. One day my brothers and my mum called us for the meeting and said; we really need to have someone in this home who can at least speak English.
You never know tomorrow someone else might come and steal the remaining small land just because we all cannot speak English, so my mum decided to go to her brother’s place who was a C.O.W then in Rukungiri District
That brother was her step brother, and he has many children he was taking care of after and paying school fees for but he told her that he would pay for me for one time and she would pay for another. From our side we knew we had nothing.
She came with money for my third term in senior two and I started school and my younger brother dropped from school in p6. (As if P6 was our graduation in my home). So I started and I kept going back to my uncle to pick school fees for the one term he promised and I would tell him even the previous term Is not paid and he would also give it to me.
Good thing I was intelligent so my head teacher would not chase me from school – I had won his favor, he even knew my father. I also got favor from my uncle, every time I went to get the school for one term he would also give me for the other.
I went to senior four and life was the same, but later I forgot my suffering and I started being stubborn. One day I was in class studying commerce and I saw my Dad at the Assembly square, when I saw him I jumped off through the window and the teacher saw me.
Because I knew I had done a lot of bad manners in school, I had to run away. I became really mad but the good thing is that I was doing well academically. I studied and I completed my senior four.
I completed my senior four I came in first grade and my uncle could not even believe it.
That was Kazo Secondary School, I got a first grade and I was in Kazo. Actually many students came in first grade like 15 of us came in first grade. I took the results to my uncle but he still could not believe it until he had to call someone in mbarara to cross check and confirm that the results are truly mine.
He thought I had forged my results so he could help with school fees. So when he called they confirmed for him that the results are actually mine. Since that day he accepted to take me on as his child and pay school fees for me till I finished.
I went to school and studied. Meanwhile at home things were getting worse. I always tell the brethren that when the devil comes to a home, the banana plantations die, the toilet breaks down and the house gets disorganized.
There was no hen, no goat and there was only one cow, in a home that was always full of things. One time it was charismas time, I will never forget that scenario. Imagine before we never used to sell our milk. We would just enjoy all of it and even give it to our neighbors to drink it.
Now we had nothing and now we were looking for the milk to drink on charismas day. By that time I was in Senior Three. My elder brother had come from Kampala .All my siblings had gone into the world to look for work to do.
Imagine us who used to have many workers we started working for people, One day my brother went with his friends to work for someone and get money, they went before him.
he came later and found them, they were working on the firm and that person had a small house so he told them to sleep outside under the tree and they agreed, but later when my brother came he found out that they were sleeping under the tree and he was shocked.
He asked them is this where we are going to sleep? How can someone sleep here? And the boss over heard them and asked who is that arrogant boy? My brother told him his father’s name and the boss knew the father and he told him ok I will get you where to sleep you indeed cannot sleep outside. From that day he got for them a room where to sleep because of my father’s name.
Let me take you back, in December my brother had come back from Kampala had some money on him and we wanted to take some milk on charismas day. The boy we had called to bring for us the milk forgot and took it and sold it.
That charismas was the hardest for me in life, Christmas with no cup of milk, no meat. We had not organized anything at all for charismas. It was so hard for me and I saw my mother crying yet she was always a strong woman with strong faith.
All that happened and whatever we went through she stayed focused on God (born again).One time when I was in senior four, my father had just gotten out of salvation, drinking alcohol and sleeping around with women. Now he even started bringing witch doctors (abacwezi) at home. The first witch came with two white chairs and a small table and a white cloth.
They got two milk pots and put them on that table. He brought witch doctors at home and also married three women. While we were still shocked he brought the second witch and the third witch and the home was completely shuttered.
The boys went to look for work, the girls also went to look for what to do, we were scattered imagine my young brother also went away as young as he was he also went to look after people’s cows.
Imagine a home of twelve children now only my mum and my youngest brother stayed home. All I wanted to bring out was that terrible charismas we had that I will never forget. I saw my mother in so much pain that I had never seen before.
The devil destroyed everything; the plantations, the animals etc. Imagine a person who would be home and everything finds her home, now she had nothing to eat and she was buying food for the family.
They brought for her two kids of my step mum and she was buying food for them. I saw her with a lot of sorrow and I felt so bad. My uncle got me a place in Rukungiri to study my S.5. St Gerald Nakivale and he told the headmaster that I am his first born.
He told him, am his child I got him out of wedlock, he is my child. The headmaster said I will not chess you but I will beat you until u get on line. I felt big and important because I was a child of Cow, even the teachers feared me.
I forgot my sorrow and I did all sorts of things in Rukungiri, watched all football matches jumped all the fences.
When I got into senior five, I think what confused me was my uncle calling me his son.
The son of a cow then was a big thing. He even used to like me so much he would visit me every after two weeks.
Every time he would come with escorts, the whole school would feel that he is around and that made me grow wings and feel untouchable.
The thing I did most was escaping from school, because I knew very well that the headmaster would not expel me, so I watched all matches as I wished would just escape and go and watch football matches
One time it was 2002 World cup was coming from Nyakivare where I used to go to watch the match, when I reached the gate I saw the Head master in the school compound and I just run away. He did not leave the compound, he waited until I came back.
He kept standing on the assembly square, and every corner I would try to sneak in, he was there watching me. I knew it was time for me to go home and I knew my uncle would just hung me.
I was not studying, I had become a real problem. He told me to go home. As I walked away he sent a gate man to call me back. He gave me some part of the playground as a punishment to slash in the evening the students were from having supper and thy all got slasher and slashed everything by morning it was clear.
In the morning he found it clear and he said that can’t be you but he left me. So one time what brought a turning point I was in senior six?’
I think it is the devil, because I did not find crazy people at school .In fact, they were copying me. I was the army commander of the bad manners, so I think it’s the devil he knew I was going to be very helpful to my family and he wanted to fail me.
When I was in senior six my mum visited me and I kept asking her about everyone at home, the people that used to come home and she said she doesn’t even remember them, they stopped coming, she told me about everything happening and I really felt bad.
