Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Dokolo Women legislator Cecilia Ogwal breathed her last on 18th January 2024 from a hospital in India where she had been rushed to seek medication. She’s said to have succumbed to cancer which she had battled for some time.
A lot is said about the bold and tough speaking politician but little is said about her love life and her now 90 years husband whom she derives from her famous name Ogwal. In this article, we go into her quiet love life and marriage where she had 7 children and several others she has adopted.
Sunday 13th July 2014 was a special day for the fallen politician Cecilia Ogwal Barbara Atim and her husband Lameck Ogwal, a famer. This day, the couple chose to renew their wedding vows at All Saints Cathedral in Nakasero having wedded in 1985 during the coup that ousted president Milton Obote she actively served in UPC.
The couple later hosted their guests to a reception at Silver springs hotel in Bugolobi. It’s also during the same day 13th July that they used the same opportunity to celebrate Mr. Ogwal’s 80th birth day which he normally celebrates on June 30. These made merry with their visitors until about 9pm and later retired to their home in Bugolobi a Kampala suburb.
Later, these had an interview at their Bugolobi home with a monitor Journalist who asked a lot about their love life. Straight forward, the Ogwal’s derived into how they met.
AD: FOR THE BEST WEB HOSTING AND DOMAIN NAMES, CALL OR WHATSAPP +256758201313
Mzee Lameck Ogwal told the journalist that he first met Cecilia in 1965 at Makerere University where a dance event had been organized for various secondary schools. “When i first saw her standing in that hall, i told a friend how composed she was. Later on, he encouraged me to go and ask her to dance which i did”-he recounted then.
At the time, Cecilia was a senior five student at Gayaza high school while Ogwal worked as a community development officer in Lango and Teso region. Ogwal had gone to the event with a few friends.
After the event, the two parted ways and met again during one of her school holidays. “she had an uncle, a police officer at the time, with who she normally spent holidays. He was my friend and whenever i paid him a visit, Cecilia and i would talk. We eventually became good friends”-Ogwal told the journalist.
The two officially started dating in 1966 and married in 1970 at Christ the King Church in Kampala when was 24 years while Ogwal was 36 years old but the 12 year age gap was not an issue because they loved and adored each other. “What i loved about Lameck was the fact that he was never pretentious like other men. He was a real gentleman,”-Cecilia said.
“I liked her from the very beginning because of her gracefulness, frank nature and most importantly, stunning beauty”-Ogwal also said.
Their first Child, a daughter was born in 1972. they have seven children, the youngest now 44. Among their children are a set of twins Andrew Opio and Phillip Ocen born in 1975
“Looking after these children was not easy during those years because of the political turmoil at that time,-said Cecilia said. Mzee Lameck said that Soldiers often looted and searched their home in search for his wife because of her too much affiliation to Dr Milton Obote’s Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) as an assistant secretary general then.
Her work in UPC also put the lives of her husband who worked as a principle youth Organizer at the Ministry Headquarters in Kampala and children in danger.
We eventually fled to Nairobi, Kenya in 1977. Life became very hard. Lameck tried to make ends meet through import trade while i remained at home looking after the children”-recounted Cecilia. They returned in 1980 and started once again rebuilding their lives from scratch. This was the most trying time of their marriage to the late Cecilia.
She credited the contrast in their personalities for the success of their marriage. “He is very slow in doing things and this at times helps me to contemplate and reflect on this before making very crucial decisions,”-she explained.
She also said her husband’s peaceful nature also often prompted him to be apologrtic something that sustained their relationships though Ogwal said that it is his wife’s vocal ability that at times kept things together at home. “I just love her personality. Forinstance, it is her openness and assertiveness that made it easy for her to discipline the children,”-he said.
As an MP, Cecilia was constantly in the public unlike her husband who spends most of the time on his farm in Kiryandongo district where among other things was doing bee keeping and goat rearing.
“I have no problem with her involvement in politics. It is what she love doing and i always try as much as possible to support her whatever way i can, including financially”-Ogwal said. She can be in the spotlight, which is very fine with me but i do not enjoy it personally. I love being on my own, achieving my goals quietly and not being out there constantly scrutinized by the media
In 1969, Ogwal saw an advert calling for entries into the Miss Uganda beauty contest and thought of her then fiancee Cecilia. “I encouraged her to enter the pageant because i thought it would boost her confidence and avail her with more opportunities”-Ogwal said.
Indeed, Cecilia came up at the top, though not the very top. “I was not the official winner of that pageant that was held at Apollo Milton Hotel (current Sheraton Kampala hotel). I was the first runner up. It was a certain from Tooro, Fort Portal who won”-Cecilia recalled.
Word then and now is that she was the winner but she was not, was instead a first runner up. Fame never meant anything to her as she said her life did not change in any way. She returned to school and concentrated on attaining her Bachelor of Commerce Degree at the East African University in Nairobi now University of Nairobi.
With the exposure from the pageant and a university degree, she was able to venture into many things afterwards, including a political career for which she is most known, with the help of her husband and children who she says have always been supportive of her.
Asked about what has been the most embarrassing moment in their life so far.
Mzee Lameck recounted some years back while he jogging with the children in the morning, a dog attacked him and he fell down. He said he was ashamed because instead of feeling pity towards him, they instead just laughed.
For Cecilia she said, her embarrassing moment in her life is during a welcoming party that her husband had organized for her, she got drunk and started saying all sorts of things, including dying and going to be with the angels.
CREDIT: DAILY MONITOR.
If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via ultimatenews19@gmail.com. Follow Our WhatsApp Channel HERE and Telegram Channel HERE to see more of our stories.