Honorable Freda Nanziri Kase-Mubanda was born in Buganda Royalty to Mzee Yokana Kase, omukulu wesiga, and Manjeri Mukebiita, herself, royalty from the Kingdom of Karagwe in present-day Bukoba, in northern Tanzania.
As second born in a family of ten including , our Honorable went to Kabwoko Girls School for primary school, then onto the prestigious Gayaza High School on the eastern flanks of Kampala and then Makerere University.
She is survived by her siblings Esther the firstborn, Margaret, Dr.Clare and Rosette. Honorable joins her late siblings Ethel, James, Paul, and Ruth who have been called home by the Lord.
Honorable Freda worked as the Chief of Acquisition at the United Nations Library in New York, rising to the rank of Assistant Secretary General. She loved discovering new places, traveling to at least 50 countries, she was articulate in English and in French. She was also an information scientist, an avid reader, and a fierce scrabble player.
An adventurer spirit and foreign travel minister Honorable served in France and India among other places alongside her first husband, career diplomat Ambassador Eldad Kanyanya Wapenyi.
No stranger to standing on the right side of justice, Honorable supported her first husband as he announced to the world, the economic war waged by Idi Amin. Which lead to the expulsion of Asians of British Decent. During this time she developed a thick skin in the high corridors of colossal power.
She served as an Ambassador in Moscow, Russia and later served as Ambassador to Canada. She was also an advisor to Uganda’s fourth President QC Godfrey Binaisa, the godfather of her son David.
She later served as a member of the UN Peace Corps and had UN observer status at the elections in Cambodia and in Namibia. She is survived by two children; David and Pande who live in the United States; she joins her late daughter Dr.Khakasa, son Richard Mukyasi Wapenyi and Wanda Alexander Wapenyi. She had four grandchildren; Richard Thomas Mukyasi Wapenyi, Matthew David Mukyasi Wapenyi, Khakasa Tendo Wapenyi, and Nakato Wapenyi. She also had one great-grandchild, Julian Thomas Mukyasi Wapenyi.
Later in life, she remarried Alfred Mubanda Sr, a former state minister for foreign affairs, a former foreign service officer and former Minister of Parliament for Busiro South. It is with Mr. Mubanda that she cut her teeth in the political arena, and perhaps found her calling in life. She became a councillor and speaker for the LC3 council of Nakawuka, also in Busiro South constituency. Amongst many causes she championed behind women’s rights, including but not limited to equal estate rights for women.
A life long learner, she was involved in education reform in her own constituent Masaka. Honorable also established a scholarship fund at Harvard University in her daughter’s name. One goal she had hoped to accomplish was to open a girl’s school in Masaka in memory of her father, who was also a firm believer in women’s education.
We will remember Honorable Freda Nanziri Kase-Mubanda as the epitome of a power house sure of who she was, a champion for the marginalized, an advocate for women’s rights and more, a supportive wife, a loving mother, a nurturing sister, a fun aunt, a doting grandmother, and a treasured friend.
She will be laid to rest at the burial grounds of her father’s home, her birthplace in Kyamuyimbwa, Masaka.