THE CAREER LIFE OF JOHN NAZARETH AN OLD BOY WHO DONATED A HOUSE TO THE SCHOOL.
The story as told to William Kituuka Kiwanuka
(Lourdel House 1974 - 1979)
John Nazareth was a student at St. Mary’s College from 1961 to 1966 and was a member of Mugwanya House. He was a classmate of Dr. George Kkolokolo and Engineer J.B. Walusimbi Jr.
During the Pre - Independence Elections of 1962, Kisubi Parish Church was ransacked at night and the Blessed Tabarnacle was broken into and the Host was stolen. There was fear that the same would happen at the College Chapel. So, Anthony Carvalho and Nazareth both Sacristans volunteered to sleep in the Sacristy to give an alarm in case the Chapel was invaded. This they did for 2 years and a few months.
Nazareth proceeded to do a B.Sc. in Mathematics at Makerere University after which he worked with the Statistics Division of the Ministry of Finance & Planning in Entebbe from 1970.
From the time he was born in Entebbe, his father was employed by the Government of Uganda. For most of his life in Uganda, their family stayed in houses rented by the Government. After the death of his father in 1965 (while he was still a student at SMACK) his family moved from the Government house into a private one which his aunt had bought for them.
It was in a line of Commercial shops with a home at the back that was located near the entrance to Entebbe – Plot 99, Kampala Road. The house was however seized at the time of the Expulsion of Asians in November 1972. Nazareth then moved into a Government house as he was entitled given that he was working for Government. In September 1973 Nazareth took unpaid leave from the Ministry to do Postgraduate studies outside Uganda. Given that the political climate was really bad in 1975 when he completed his studies, he decided with great sadness not to return and stayed in Toronto Canada. He obtained a Postgraduate Diploma in Statistics from the London School of Economics Political Science, an M.Sc. in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Toronto, and an MBA from York University Toronto. Professionally he worked in Litton Systems, De Havilland Aircraft, and Bombardier Aerospace in the field of Reliability & Maintainability Engineering. (He was proud when the rejuvenated Uganda Airlines chose to operate the CRJ900 aircraft from Bombardier).
In 1981, the aunt Miss Lily Nazareth who had donated the house to his family died and had left the house at Plot 99 to Nazareth as per her Will.
When President Museveni encouraged people to reclaim their properties, Nazareth decided to claim the Entebbe house which he eventually donated to his former school.
He had sought the advice of Ambassador Joseph Tomusange who was then Uganda’s High Commissioner to Canada (They remembered each other from SMACK days). The Ambassador had been very helpful to him and Ben Ssenyonjo when they formed an Association which was a vehicle to send books to Uganda.
Tomusange suggested that a Lawyer from SMACK be used, and he asked Hon. Edward Ssekandi to help. Hon. Ssekandi was a year ahead of Nazareth when they were at SMACK.
Around 1992 Nazareth contacted Hon. Ssekandi and gave him Powers - of -Attorney which authorized him to act on his behalf, and all necessary documents were sent to Hon. Ssekandi to effect the transfer to the name: St. Mary’s College Kisubi.
The house is currently rented out by the school and is a source of income.
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