Inspiration
Who was Rhoda Nsibirwa, A Politician Who Didn’t Stand Lies, Greed and Theft
Tributes pour in from feminists, friends, relatives and lawmakers after news of the death of Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema Nakibuuka, one of the pioneer Uganda female parliamentarians. She died on Sunday, 3rd August 2025.
Some have described her as a trailblazer for women in Uganda’s politics, and others have described her as a fearless leader and devoted advocate for women’s rights. But they may have missed one or two things about Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema Nakibuuka.
She could have been among a few Ugandan politicians who didn’t stand for lies, and hated self-aggrandisement. Uganda Radio Network’s National Perspective had on two occasions interviewed Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema Nakibuuka at her family home in Muyenga.
Quite a legacy
“I don’t stand lies, I don’t want to paint myself differently. I don’t want to tell lies like other people. I don’t believe in what doesn’t belong to me to be mine. I don’t want to have something at the expense of another person. I don’t believe it. I don’t get comfortable when I get something at the expense of my constituents,” she said. In a long career in Parliament, she was guided by the desire to serve her people with dignity, a virtue she learnt from her late father, Owekitibwa, Martin Luther Nsibirwa.
Martin Luther Nsibirwa was twice the prime minister – katikiiro – of Buganda. Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema Nakibuuka was born at when Martin Luther Nsibirwa was just three weeks oil in office. She was the eighth child of Nsibirwa. She used to be referred to as Omwana Wa Katikiro Katikiro’s daughter. She spent her early childhood at Mengo Butikiro during the first term of Martin Luther Nsibirwa as Katikiro.
“My father administered his family with great care and love. Which love he extended to all our cousins who lived with us. He, however, was very strict about our discipline, humility, and respect for others. He instilled all these qualities in his children. Above all, he believed in education for his children,” shared Kalema in one of the interviews.
“My father is responsible, first of all, for my upbringing. And then secondly, when I was at Gayaza, I got saved just before I got married. And ever since July 1949, amidst dust, amidst problems, particularly when I lost my husband, who was abducted and killed by Amin. God has given me peace of mind and steadiness to focus on him”
She testified that the school where she went further boosted her morality beyond what she had from home and the institution where her father served.
“The foundation of my school, the foundation of my home, gave me no chance other than integrity. My father believed in serving the people, and I believed he passed that to us. The legacy is still on among my nephews and nieces. They are honest wherever they are. You can’t find the name Nsibirwa in scandal,s” she stated.
Rhoda Kalema says she learnt from her father that politics is about people, not slogans or rallies, and that if society is not properly governed, human beings are bound to object and express what they want.
She served in the National Resistance Council, which was equivalent to Parliament when the National Resistance Army took power. She later served in the Constituent Assembly that made the 1995 constitution of Uganda.
Education
She spent one year at Gayza High School for primary one. She was later admitted to King’s College Budo, where she stayed for eleven years. At the time, the primary school cycle was up to primary six. The young Rhoda Nakibuuka excelled in studies. She was the best girl, earning herself a scholarship from Junior One to Junior Three.
Rhoda stayed at Budo to finish the top three senior classes. She did a commercial course at a senior level. The commercial course has elements like typing, shorthand, office routine, bookkeeping and commerce. She chose commercial studies because she feared science.
“But where I went, I didn’t have any regrets because the course taught me many skills” she recounted. Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema Nakibuuka was in 1953 offered a scholarship to study in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh. On her return, she joined Buloba Teacher Training College, where she served as bursar/Secretary.
Rhoda Nsibirwa Nakibuuka served as bursar/ Secretary of Gayaza High School for two years. In 1950, she got married to William Kalema, then a teacher at Kings College Budo where she also became a part-time secretary and typing teacher.
In 1953, the British government offered William Kalema a scholarship to Edinburgh University. She joined him two years later and enrolled of a one-year course in social work at an Adult Education College, New Battle Abbey. She was alter admitted for a social certificate course at University of Edinburgh. She graduated in 1958.
Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema joined the Ministry of Community Development which was then in charges of probation and welfare services. She served there until 1966 when she retired. She had joined women’s organisation around 1959.
“That is where I got the passion, the mentoring, I got involved in women’s organisations in the early years until now” she shared with URN. “That is why I’m associated with even the current women’s organisations under Uganda Women’s Network”
At her age, Rhoda Kalema was still reading. Her living room was full of books, pamphlets that were carefully arranged. The length of an interview with her would take longer than planned because she would raise to pick a book or paper from the shelves.
She would insist that the interviewer read a particular section or chapter. In one of the interviews, we asked her about her passion and what she wanted to be remembered for. “I have passion for women development, I have a passion in girls and women, I have a passion for good social services, I have a passion for young people to know God” she said.
No wonder, in 2002, she asked the Scripture Union of Nakulabye to open up a branch in Kiboga district where she had served as Woman MP. She desired that everybody should read and understand the bible. So she thought scripture unions from different clubs would best play that role. She was a life member of the Bible Society.
Rhoda Nsibirwa Kalema said she wanted to be remembered as a person who put God first in her life.
“And I want to be remembered as someone who wished the best for the people of my nation. Who wished everyone in my country to enjoy equal benefits. We may not reach the same level, but to enjoy benefits of justice, benefits of education, and benefits of health, benefits of economic development and the benefits of human rights and democracy,” said Kalema.
She desired that all Ugandans enjoy the rights under chapter four of the 1995 constitution. “God wants all his children to enjoy the life he gave them. In fact I would like everybody to access the bible. To be able to read the word of God. And I want to be remembered of course that I love my family”
She joined Uganda People’s Congress as her first political party in 1961, having been initiated into it by Adoko Nyekon and the late Grace Ibingira. But she was just a supporter with no active role.
Kalema would abandon politics when Idi Amin ousted Obote in January 1971. She says she couldn’t handle the shock that follows a military coup, persecution and haunting of those in the overthrown government. She says she decided to live a normal life for fear of persecution.
At the time of the coup, her husband was on the same delegation to Singapore as Obote and several other ministers attending the Commonwealth Summit. One evening, just four days to the first anniversary of the coup, William Kalema left home on Plot 22 Nakasero Road, Kampala to drop off a relative in Kansanga. He never returned.
After the 1979 liberation war, Rhoda Kalema was the only woman to participate in the National Consultative Council (NCC).
She served as minister for culture in the short-lived Godfrey Binaisa government from June 1979 to May 1980. She also served as State Minister of Public Service from 1989 to 1999. She represented Kiboga district in the National Resistance Council (NRC) and in the Constituent Assembly, the body that made the 1995 Constitution. She was the mother to Dr Gladys Kalema and Dr Valentine Kalema.
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