Ugandans living in Tanzania have held a two-category marathon run as a gesture of joining fellow Ugandans in celebrating the 62nd independence anniversary which will be celebrated in Uganda on Wednesday, October 9th. The marathon held in Dar res Salaam in Tanzania on Saturday had two categories of 2.5 and 5 kilometers.
Among the runners, was the 2nd Secretary at the Uganda’s High Commission in Tanzania Comfort Aviko, who said the marathon was intended to give Ugandans living and working in Tanzania the true feel of Uganda’s Independence day, and to offer them the opportunity to join fellow countrymen in the festivities.
Aviko hailed the relationship between Uganda and Tanzania before and after the two countries’ independence which she said is the reason why citizens in either of the two countries join hands whenever either country is celebrating independence.
“We have a lot in common; Tanzanian brothers were key in contributing to ousting of fascist regimes in our country, we have a common border, trade and other interactions that keep cementing our relations.
The representative of the executive of the association of Ugandans living and working in Tanzania Peter Kahwa noted that it is good that the leadership in either countries has enabled them to take stock of what they went through, and suggested that this should be the background for strengthening the two countries’ relations even further.
Kahwa hailed the Tanzanian Leader Dr. Samia Suhulu who he said has joined her Ugandan counterpart, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni in making the lives of citizens of either country work and reside in each other’s country.
The 72-year old David Ocheng, son of fallen pre- and post-independence politician Daudi Ocheng who was a close ally of the late Kabaka of Buganda Sir Edward Muteesa, said he was physically present at Kololo Independence Grounds when the Union Jack was being lowered and the Uganda flag raised, and so saw it all happen.
“The home of my father, the late Daudi Ocheng was not far from Kololo airstrip and so I got the opportunity to witness the change of leadership when the instruments of power were being handed to Uganda by the colonialists,” Ocheng said.
Since then, Ocheng said, he has witnessed all that has been happening in Uganda and Tanzania, and prayed that the Almighty God grants the two countries’ leaders life as a gift for their efforts to maintain the good relationship between the people of the two countries.
He said that since 1975, he has lived in Tanzania with his family, and that all along he has enjoyed a brotherly relationship with Tanzanian brothers.
Another Ugandan Dianah Naluggya thanked the marathon organisers for giving women a chance to engage in physical exercise away from the domestic chores of preparing for the family.
Naluggya advised all women in Tanzania and in Uganda to always take time off and do physical exercises. She thanked President Museveni for good leadership which has enabled Ugandans to prosper.
