Honoring a towering heroine

The inspiring story of Alex Amooti Nyakabwa, an extraordinary human being who lived an ordinary life

THE LAST WORD | ANDREW M. MWENDA | I had promised to write a second part of the Sino-US global competition when, last Thursday, February 12, my bestestestest friend, Alex Edith Busingye Amooti Nyakabwa, left this world for the next. She was only 74 years young. I feel a deep sense of loss and relief at the same time. I feel loss for the passing of such an amazing friend and human being. I feel relief because Amooti has rested after a long and exhausting battle. She was such a good human being that I am sure wherever she has gone, it’s a better place. I will return to international politics next week.

Amooti has been in a coma for almost seven months. The pain of seeing her in that state was, to me, unbearable. I felt she needed to rest. Yet I always loved seeing her breathing. Even when it was clear there was no hope of her regaining consciousness, I still hoped that against all the odds, she would bounce back to life. In her very rich and fruitful life, Amooti triumphed over many things. This singular illness was not the worst.

I owe Amooti and so many other people who have been in my life so much gratitude. People like her are the ones who, through the way they treated me, helped cultivate in me the confidence to pursue my dreams. I want to give this testimony because if I have been able to become anything, it is because of the love and confidence people like her extended to me. And for Amooti, her role in my life was exceptional and unprecedented. It is rare in human life to find a human being like her.

Briefly, here is my story with this giant of a human being, this wonderful mother, this sweet friend, this beautiful woman (beautiful in both her physical looks but much more so in her soul), and this generous person who gave to all without expecting anything in return, a victor in a thousand battles.

I must have been 13 or 14 years old when I first went to her home to visit her sons, Walter and Wesley, who were among my closest friends at Nyakasura School. I knocked on the door, and a beautiful, elegant, lovely lady opened the door for me with a welcoming smile. It was 10am, and I was instantly hooked even before we had talked. This was chemistry at work, love at first sight. After greeting her, I asked if Walter and Wesley were around. “Are you Andrew Mwenda?” She asked me. “How did you know?” I asked back. “My sons have talked so much about you; I got to know your face without meeting you and your voice without hearing you speak.”

Then she invited me to enter the house, and I sat down. In an instant she had made me feel at home. I felt she and I had been friends for ages. There was, deep inside Amooti’s personality, a welcoming loveliness that was so beautiful and graceful. We sat and talked; she prepared me lunch. I ate and drank my fill. I left at 5pm. I even forgot I had come to visit Walter and Wesley, who, wherever they had gone, did not show up until I left. I didn’t miss them. Who does that with a 13-year-old?

From that day, Amooti and I became the bestest friends in the world. I would always visit her, and we would have these marathon conversations lasting hours on end: I a teenager, she a mother to my friends. Who does that? An adult having a kid as a friend? I became closer to Amooti than I was with both Walter and Wesley. I would confide in her my deepest fears and anxieties, share with her secrets I would not even share with Walter and Wesley or even my own mother. As I grew in age, so did the love, affection and respect between us grow and blossom. Her children: Walter, Wesley, Ingrid, Edgar, Pearl and Beverly became my siblings.

In September 1991, her husband, Vincent William Kwebiiha Akiiki Nyakabwa, died. He was an accomplished lawyer and left her with six young children, the youngest of them, Beverly, only one year old. Amooti rose to the occasion. She took on the responsibility with the energy, enthusiasm and passion only she could assemble. She took all of them through the best schools and set them on the road to professional and career success.

This morning, my bestestestest friend, Alex Edith Busingye Amooti Nyakabwa, left this world for the next. She was only 74 years young. I feel a deep sense of loss and relief: loss for the passing of an amazing friend and human being; relief because Amooti has rested after a long… pic.twitter.com/cAs1TL4mac

— Andrew M. Mwenda (@AndrewMwenda) February 12, 2026

Mr Nyakabwa had begun building a massive residential house designed like three houses in one. Amooti did not have a high-paying job. One day, when visiting her, a young lady of 39 years with six kids to take care of, Amooti astonished me when she told me that she was going to build and complete the house. Although I told her I believed she would succeed, it was only not to disappoint her. Inside me I felt there was no chance of that ever happening.

But Amooti was not deterred. She improved the diary farm, educated all her kids through the best schools in Uganda and completed the house, creating a country residence of elegance and beauty. Few women left alone with such a responsibility have been half as successful.

So now we can assess Amooti’s rich life. Whenever someone dies, the question that comes to mind is, ‘Of what value have they been to family, to friends, to community?’ On that score, Amooti lived a very meaningful, purposeful, productive and fulfilling life. She has left a legacy that inspires, humbles and awes everyone who knew her.

Amooti represented the nobility of the human spirit. She had, in great abundance, three great qualities: largeness of mind, kindness of heart and boundless generosity. She made everyone – young and old, rich or poor, male or female, literate or illiterate, of high or low rank – feel recognized, appreciated, seen, heard, felt, loved, and cared for.

Amooti triumphed because where others saw problems, she could see opportunities; where most people in difficult situations lost hope and became despondent, Amooti found inspiration and motivation to work hard and to overcome even when all the odds were against her.

Amooti was great because she saw possibilities in everything, because she was forever an optimist, and most critically, because she believed in the goodness of others. She saw herself in other people, and because of that, she made those who met and interacted with her develop goodness in their hearts.

*****

amwenda@ugindependent.co.ug