Mzee Wetang’ula (3rd from right )with members of the Umukuuka cabinet and Uganda security forces at Mbale city,Uganda ….Photo/IP
By Stephen Masiga
Mzee Dominic Wetang’ula began where all good cultural sermons begin: by reminding Inzu ya Bugisu/Masaaba that unity is not optional, not fashionable, and certainly not something to be debated endlessly in WhatsApp forums that produce more voice notes than solutions.
Championing respect for Inzu, Mzee Wetang’ula — with the calm authority of a man who remembers Bugisu before hashtags, press briefings and strategic outrage — gently warned that those who choose not to listen to their cultural leader should also choose not to complain later.
Culture, he implied, does not negotiate. It observes.
Appointed early last year as Chief Cultural Advisor to His Highness Jude Mike Mudoma, the Umukuka III, Hon. Wetang’ula carries his role with humour, patience and historical memory deep enough to silence even the most enthusiastic revisionists.
Born in Bungoma, Kenya, in 1929, Mzee Wetang’ula is now approximately 97 years young, an age where birthdays are less personal affairs and more quiet acknowledgements of living history.
His relationship with Bugisu dates back to 1954, when he first visited Mbale and bought a door for his house — a door he still proudly references, partly because it still stands and partly because it has outlasted several political eras.
Educated in Kenya and the United States, he served as a teacher and later headteacher, shaping minds long before advising royalty.
His lineage traces back to the late 19th century: both his grandparents were born in 1875 and migrated to Kenya in the late 1890s, well before colonial borders complicated identities.
His grandfather, Mathias Nanjobo Wetang’ula, was born around present-day Bubutu, while his father, Emmanuel Wetang’ula, was born in 1902 in Lwandanyi — firmly Bugisu land, for the avoidance of any modern cartographic confusion.
On January 28, 2026, His Highness the Umukuka dispatched a royal team — including spokesperson Steven Masiga, Hon. Irene Manghali, Minister for Public Engagements, and royal guards — to receive Mzee Wetang’ula directly from Bungoma, in keeping with standard cabinet protocol where dignity travels first and explanations follow later.
A father of 35 children, with 25 surviving, Hon. Wetang’ula’s family history reads like a census chapter.
Among his children are Rt. Hon. Dr. Moses Wetang’ula, the Speaker of the National Assembly of Kenya, and Timothy Wetang’ula, the Member of Parliament for Westlands, making his household one where parliamentary procedure is practically a dinner-table language.
Invited for a routine cabinet meeting, Mzee Wetang’ula applauded His Highness the Umukuka for championing unity in Bugisu and noted — with gentle sarcasm and elder wisdom — that anyone who refuses to respect the cultural leader will have only themselves to consult when consequences arrive. Culture, after all, keeps minutes longer than politics.
