Bishop Stephen Kazimba: Age-limit is not a big deal

Bishop Stephen Samuel Kazimba had an extraordinary childhood.

The bishop of Mityana Diocese first met his polygamous father after he had sat primary seven.

“I was brought up by a single mother; Maama Jessica Nanyonjo and life wasn’t easy. Going to school was really a very big challenge. She was selling charcoal, banana leaves,” he says.

“So from that background, you can see how God can lift you from a hut to a state house, from nowhere to somewhere, from nobody to somebody, from grass to grace, from labour to favour, from nothing to something, from a test to a testimony, from a mess to a message and thats a summary of my testimony.”

Kazimba did not commit to Christ until March 7, 1984 when he heard a message being preached from John 1;12

“I had the vacuum of a father in my heart, and I had known that fathers are Don’t-carers, so I didn’t have the close relationship with my father and I knew that’s how fathers do behave. And because of that, I didn’t want to go to church,” he says.

The conversion to faith, he says, was gradual.

“I started when I joined the choir, then I was helping our lay leader at the village church, that is Madudu Church of Uganda near Ssezibwa Falls. I would help with reading the lessons, then they eventually encouraged me to train at the Theological College at Ngogwe Baskerville in 1985 and we were the first batch of students to be sent for training as lay leaders to Bishop Dr. Livingstone Nkoyoyo when he had just become a bishop of Mukono Diocese in 1984. After training, I was sent to Lugazi Peter’s Church as a lay leader,” Kazimba says.

In 2008, he was made Bishop of Mityana Diocese which covers the districts of Kyankwanzi, Kiboga, Mubende and the bigger part of Mityana.

He says the announcement surprised him but he took it in a step.

“I didn’t know that the Lord could call me. I discovered myself as an evangelist, a teacher and a preacher of the gospel testifying about Jesus’s love which goes beyond human understanding to give hope to those who had no hope. I felt that was my ministry and now taking the new calling as a bishop became a new calling, a new challenge and a new opportunity,” he said.

He believes he has spearheaded so many changes within the diocese.

When he was made bishop, the diocese had 500 now they are 730 churches. Now there are 450 primary schools, 22 secondary schools, two Primary Teachers Colleges.

What has it taken for Kazimba to maintain his good reputation?

Humility, he says.

“Jesus taught that he who wants to be great, must be a leader of others and must be a servant. If you want to be elevated, you must come down, Jesus Himself led from his knees. He knelt down and washed the feet of His disciples. Kneeling down...? The King of Kings kneeling down? The master of masters? That beats my understanding and so, every person in leadership; if you want to be respected, if you want to be honoured, lead from the knees, respect others and God will bless you,” he says.

Kazimba says there us nothing wrong with religious leaders joining politics. He says he was ordained as priest with Rev Peter Bakaluba Mukasa, the former Mukono South MP.

“So if God calls you, you answer and we just pray for you to represent us very well so that you are not engulfed and swallowed up by secularism, consumerism and liberalism,” he says.

On the recently passed age-limit bill, Kazimba says it is not a big thing compared to a term limits.

He says: “If someone is 80 years and people can trust this person, its okay but without knowing where somebody will end, thats very dangerous and for me my prayer is; Let us be so clear, we know somebody is on power for such a period or these terms so that we give others an opportunity of leading as well. But now let us pray for peace, reconciliation is needed, renewal, people working together as Ugandans and dialogue.”