Staff Writer

Anybody that has interacted with Rev. Dr. Edison Muhindo Kalengyo will always notice one thing about him_the permanently beaming and smiling face behind his spectacles. On close interaction, the revelation of his depth of knowledge in the theological field will make one believe that this person never at any one time moved barefoot in villages that lie on the slopes of the mountains of the moon (Rwenzori).

On asking about his background, he reveals it to me that he first qualified as a veterinary doctor before joining the ordained ministry.
“I qualified as a veterinary doctor but decided to branch into ministry. I did not take up my first government appointment because my heart was so much in ministry. I asked the government official if I could do both ministry and veterinary medicine but he said I had to choose between the two. I chose ministry and I have no regrets whatsoever,” he says .
Rev. Dr. Kalengyo, currently an associate professor in the department of theology, was born in the present Kasese district in 1958 to Hosiah and Elizabeth Katsiotho. His parents were peasants who basically lived off the soil although his father was a lay reader in the local church. Unlike many children of his time that just collided with formal education, Kalengyo says his father actively took him to school.
“My father had an idea about the importance of education and it is for this reason that he actively took me to school,” he says.
He had his pre-primary education at his village church in Isango, Kasese district, before later moving to Karambi Primary School. During this pre-primary (equivalent to today’s nursery) education, he used to write in the dust. “If one excelled here, he or she then graduated to a slate,” he says.
He was at Karambi Primary School for eight years. His primary education took eight years because he repeated Primary Seven. Repeating primary seven, he says, was because his parents wanted him to get good results that would take him to a boarding school in Senior One. Indeed, when he sat for his primary leaving examinations for the second time, God granted his parents’ wishes. He passed in first grade and was able to make it to boarding school.
He joined Bukumi S S S, Kakumiro in 1974 for Senior one. Joining secondary school, he says was also the first time he put on shoes. His first pair of shoes, he explains was given to him by his father, whereas a cousin gave him a shirt and a pair of trousers. Pushing him to secondary school, he says, was financially challenging to his family because his father could not afford all the requirements.
“For beddings, my father bought a piece of cloth and told me to wait for the school compound to be slashed so that I could pick the grass to fix in the cloth so as to make a mattress. That is the story of the first mattress that I slept on,” he says.
Although he had joined a catholic school, he continued practising his Anglican faith and at this here, he was chosen to lead all the Anglican students in the school. He says that even though he was in secondary school, he had never heard of anything called a university and did not know that he would end up there one day.
“All I wanted in school was study and become a veterinary assistant,” he says.
“Initially, I just wanted to be a veterinary assistant but while I was in Senior Three, a teacher  told me that I could go on and become a real veterinary doctor if I studied particular subjects and passed at A-level, “he adds.
He completed his O- level in 1978 and joined Ntare School for A- level in 1979. At A’ level, he studied physics, chemistry, biology and subsidiary Mathematics. Although Ntare was a school for the well to do, Kalengyo did not find it  challenging to fit in there. This he says was because there had been general poverty in Uganda that year. “The situation was so because the liberation war had destroyed the economy,” he says.
He sat his A-level in 1980 before joining Makerere University in 1981 to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in veterinary medicine. He graduated in the year 1986. As the norm of the time, he did not look for a job but instead the Public Service interviewed them while they were still studying and got their appointment letters on graduation day.
Whereas others were overjoyed that they were now government workers, Kalengyo was torn between either pursuing a career in ministry or veterinary. After a lot of soul- searching and consultation, he realized his passion had changed for the ordained ministry.
He then tried to request the government officials for permission to do ministry alongside the government job but he was told to choose one. At last, he decided to go for the ordained ministry. He says most of the people that he broke the news to were happy except for his father and wife.
His father thought most clergy lived lives of paupers.
“My father had served in the church and had seen the humble lives of  clergymen. He did not wish that for his son,” says Kalengyo.
 On the other hand, Dr. Kalengyo’s wife thought  clergymen tended to lead hypocritical lifestyles.
“She thought that being a clergyman would make me do the same. But I  promised to be different. I am glad that I have not turned on my word,” says Dr. Kalengyo.
Later however, his father blessed him to go into ordained ministry.
Journey into ministry
Although his father worked in the church, Kalengyo says he was an average Christian. His journey towards becoming a true and devoted Christian started at Ntare School when Aggrey Mugisha the current supervisor of The Standard invited him to attend fellowship. At the fellowship, he says, he was moved by the preaching and it is then that he started to think about giving his life to Jesus Christ.
His turning point was during the Easter service of 1980. It is from here that he gave his life  to Christ and since then, he has never looked back. He became deeply involved in the service of God. At Makerere University he became so active at St. Francis Chapel that his friends begun telling him he was misplaced. After graduation, he enrolled for a Bachelor of Divinity at the then Bishop Tucker Theological College. He graduated in in 1989 and went on to serve as a curate at St. Paul’s Cathedral Kasese. Between 1991-1993, he served as diocesan secretary South Rwenzori. In 1994 he went on to  become the Diocesan Bible Study Co-coordinator, Rwenzori diocese. In 1995, he was appointed the acting arch-deacon of Kasese and left that same year to go and do a master’s degree in philosophy at Nottingham University. He attained it in 1997.
In 1997, he came to Uganda Christian University as a senior lecturer in New Testament studies before later on heading the department of theology and divinity up to the year 2003. From the Between 2003 to 2005 he did a PhD at the University of Kwazulu –Natal and was awarded a PhD in the year 2005. He is currently an associate professor of the New Testament and head of Biblical Studies. He is currently a committee member on several religious bodies such as Church of Uganda Theological Mission, Uganda Joint Christian Council and World Conference of Associations of Theological Institutions.
He has also made several publications and has  worked as a consultant for the National Council for Higher Education.
Kalengyo the family man.
Dr.Kalengyo is married to Dorothy with whom they have three children. The wife is currently working in the law faculty as an administrative assistant. Their firstborn Kambere Mwesigwa is at Kyambogo University studying mechanical engineering whereas their last- born Ahebwa Bwambale is in his Senior Six vacation.
 Kalengyo says he is thankful to God for his wife.
“It is not easy to balance academics with the family. One needs a very supporting spouse to do it. And my wife has always done that,” he says.
The most memorable moment in his ministry, was when his last- born received the Lord. in a service where he was the main preacher.
His message to the young people is for them not to lose hope because God has a purpose for them in life. “They should be confident because God has a purpose for them,” he says. In life, Dr. Kalengyo says that there is nothing he values like being truthful and exemplary.
“Being truthful and exemplary is the legacy I always want to leave behind,” he says.