Dr. Daniel Ruhweza’s Writing Journey

My understanding of the Lord at an early age
My name is Daniel Ruhweza. I am a Christian, a husband to Clare Katwesigye which means ‘trust and my quiver is full’ – we have four children, all unique in their way, Keije , Kemanzi, Kaine, and Karuhanga are their names, Keije means welcome. She is the firstborn in our family – an intense bookworm and writer. We also call her Damita which means Princess, and she has penned her first novel we are editing at a slow pace as she works through her GSCE exams. Kemanzi means warrior- she is a worshipper and quite the organizer and people person; We also called her Darlene after the worshipper in Australia. Kaine is a free spirit, a beautiful lady with a heart for people too. We also gave her the name ‘Devine’. Karuhanga means he is of the Lord is a leader and growing to be a caring and good-hearted man. We also called him Daniel Junior.

I came to know the Lord at an early age. I recall my mother singing the praise and worship songs and my elder brother (RIP) carrying me on his shoulders and taking me to the church where I learnt the Lord’s prayer. At primary school, we started a fellowship of sorts. It was irregular with hindsight, I am amazed that we took God seriously even in our naive way. I attended Busoga College Mwiri, well known in our country’s Scripture Union and Pentecostal circles for arguably producing the highest number of Pastors in the nation. However, Mwiri was where my Christian walk developed. We had daily evening fellowships before a new Reverend cut them to three; we had prayers and fasting and Bible reading, and that is where my journey of mentorship kicked off.

Some Christian boys helped us grow- they challenged our way of life -inspired us to be clean, responsible, and hardworking. They gave us responsibilities and introduced us to leadership. It is here that I honed my leadership skills as well as my participation in co-curricular activities, from Scouting to wildlife to music, dance, and drama. It was a no-brainer when stood for and was elected head prefect – a position which was in many cases filled by a Christian.

It was time to revive my passion for writing
It was, however, in Mwiri that I resumed my passion for writing. This passion had started in primary school where we would write for the Schools notice board and for news to read at the Assembly. At Mwiri, I started writing and collecting poems, and during my break before the A levels, I also started earning from writing short stories for our nations leading newspaper “The New Vision”.

I continued to write poems even through the University where I went to study law. The poem helped me to communicate with the girl of my dreams. On paper, I became alive, and we ‘journaled’ quite a lot. That collection of poems that Clare and I used to write and others I have written over the years are to be published as an Anthology this year. You may lookout for it.

The journey of impacting lives
As a law student at Makerere, the Lord opened up doors for me to be mentored by great Christian lawyers who helped guide me in the decisions I made. My purpose, therefore, was far from merely making money but loving mercy, doing justly, and walking humbly before the Lord. The Lord guided me to return to the University to start impacting the lives of young people as a lecturer, mentor, a patron to the Christian union, and mooting society, and supporting their passion and innovative minds.

I also became President of the Uganda Christian Lawyers Fraternity that opened up doors for me to impact more people in the judiciary, and legal practice world. I have also been able to make vital contacts with lawyers in Africa and the world. This position was critical to helping me reach more students of law and impact them. The story has greatly changed in Makerere School of Law. Indeed the athiest nomenclature and reputation of the School has changed. With the guidance of a few Christian lecturers, I have been able to involve myself in helping students have hope and not give up. Their stories and my interaction with them deeply inspired me to write the book “WE DO NOT TEACH THAT AT THE UNIVERSITY: CONFESSIONS OF A UNIVERSITY DON”

When I noticed that the boy child at the law school was taking a back seat and getting lost, I started the Manhood versus Maleness Conversation (which the girls also attend anyway). This series of talks which also happened in the period of lockdown have helped boys, and students to engage in hardly talked of topics – sex, leadership, relationships, failure, etc. All of them are in my book.

The mindset we should all have
In the book, I talk about the skills, mindset, and necessary attitude which a student in particular but all of us, in general, require to survive in this ever-changing VUCA world. While the title might assume that only University students should read it, the stories and wisdom in there apply to all people. The book was published just before CoVid 19 shut the world down. Amazingly, the advice there was aimed at helping people unlearn, learn and relearn, and have the attitude and grit to manage the times. I use the story of Joshua as an example of having the right attitude and my personal story of faith to help the reader localize the wisdom there.

By God’s grace, I have had a chance to talk about this book in the media houses and to have reviews of the same written in the media. This is because I have been a regular pundit on constitutional and political issues in our nation. Additionally, as a Zonal Pastor in my church, I have been blessed to interact with men and women who have helped me form the ideas in this book. I am a Rotarian, a lover of nature, an Advocate of the Courts of Judicature in Uganda, and an assessor/mentor in some leadership spaces. I am also an alumni of the Universities of Cambridge and Kent where I earned my Masters and Doctoral degrees in law.

The book is on Amazon
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B094ZJN4FT

For those who are eligible to vote, here is my link
https://africanauthors.net/nominee/we-dont-teach-that-at-the-university

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