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Fear of retiring to no home motivated Bishop Ssekadde
Retired. Bishop Samuel Balagadde Ssekadde does farming for self-sustenance. Photo | Edgar R Batte
What you need to know:
- After church service. Growing up, he told his parents that he wanted to be a clergyman. He is now a retired bishop. Bishop Samuel Balagadde Ssekadde, talks to Edgar R. Batte about how he is surviving after active service.
As he winds up a call, he cordially beckons us to take seats. Retired Bishop Samuel Balagadde Ssekadde’s lakeside home in Bugonga is a peaceful corner of Entebbe. This is where silence is broken by chirping birds and the sound of distant waves from Lake Victoria as they gently hit against each other.
The front of the home is dotted with trees and plants and the backside has a well-tended garden with tree shades that are at the lakefront. At 2pm, the sunset is overhead but the breeze is irresistible.
In a purple clerical shirt teamed with black suspenders, the bespectacled bishop warmly welcomes us in his sitting room and beams in a wide smile. He asks one of his househelps as he walks out and through one of the windows, the clergyman carries chairs to gardens to organise sitting space for an interview.
“We settled here after I retired in 2009. We had originally considered retiring in Mpigi, our ancestral home. Our children advised us against it, called Mpigi rural. It is where we grow food and rear pigs which have sustained us,” Bishop Ssekadde explains.
He adds : “We do not have a pension scheme. God has been kind to us. We are occasionally called upon to do church work which we happily do. We are sometimes given a token of appreciation which helps support us carry on in retirement. Our children also continue to take care of us.”
On the whole, the retired bishop says they are faring well.
Preparation
He started preparing for retirement while still in active service. Every Monday, he would check and supervise his projects.
“One day, I thought about the shock retirement would bring. I still had children I was supporting in school. These were my biological and adopted children. Around that time, one of my daughters came and told me that it is written in the scripture that God takes care of wild birds and animals so He would take care of us too,” he recalls.
Bishop Ssekadde has served the church for 50 years, and been married for 49 years. During his leadership, he encouraged reverends to undertake self-help projects to develop and have a source of income.
He planted trees on 20 acres on hired land. Uganda Electricity Distribution Company Limited bought trees from him and he was able to put up a cottage house which the couple rents out and earns some subsistence income.
The retired clergyman says it is disheartening seeing a retired bishop or reverend stuck at the time of retirement, with no home to go to.
“One of the key things that reverends should be keen about is preparing and securing their retirement,” he notes.
After active ministry, what next?
The 75-year-old chairperson of elders in Entebbe says, “I have been reading Who is responsible for my old age? A book authored by one of the residents in Entebbe.”
“The children are responsible for themselves. The government gives the elderly Shs25, 000. You are in the age where you are prone to diseases such as high blood pressure, cancer and diabetes. In the end, you are responsible for preparing for your old age,” Bishop Ssekadde observes.
Speaking of children, Bishop Ssekadde appreciates his wife for being patient with him when as a reverend and bishop, he did not have much but made sure he consulted and planned with her to undertake projects to sustain their home right from 1970 when they met.
Family man
The couple have raised their children with Christian values but not so strictly but with an objective of them understanding the teachings.
“As parents, it is important to have time to interact and listen to your children. When our children were in school, we would visit them together, share a meal, give them some pocket money but most importantly know what they were going through. They would challenge us and we would challenge them too,” the grey-haired bishop further relates.
In their retirement, the couple is proud of the love they receive from their biological and adopted children.
“On big days such as Christmas, we receive so much from them and well-wishers, so we share the joy with our neighbours. I attribute this to the good upbringing and the love we showed them,” he adds.
Brief bio
Samuel Balagadde Ssekadde loved to serve in church from a tender age. He narrates that he fell ill as a boy and he received treatment, he told his mother that he would become a reverend if God enabled him to pull through.
He fulfilled his promise by studying well and going on to pursue the path of righteousness that got his superiors to notice and promote him through the church hierarchy as he served in different places in Uganda and on the African continent at large.
