Rt. Rev. Enoch W. M. Kayeeye
BIOGRAPHY OF ENOCH KAYEEYE, DIRECTOR OF AICM
Enoch Kayeeye was born in 1944 or 1945 near a village called Muko about 30 miles from Kabale in South-West Uganda. In common with many Africans, he does not know the exact date of his birth, but he does know that he became a Christian in 1958 while in his 3rd year of Primary education. One day, on a path near Muko, a village between Iremera and Kabale, he heard a voice saying “Repent, and preach the Gospel” and sensed many beings around him. This “Damascus Road” experience changed him completely, giving him a vision to help his fellow beings, regardless of race or creed.
Education was a real struggle for Enoch, because of the lack of funding, just as it is today for all Ugandans. He had to leave school entirely after “junior secondary” at the age of 19, after only two years of secondary education. He trained as a teacher at the Bishop Stuart Teachers College, Mbarara and started teaching in 1969 at the school back in Muko where there were about 300 pupils, aged 7-16, where he quickly became deputy head at Nyaruhanga in 1970 and then head teacher of Kacerere Primary School in 1971.
He met his future wife Phoebe in 1969, and they married on Dec 19th, 1970. They have six children: Constance, Patience, Blessing, Timothy, Hope and Titus, all born between 1971 and 1986. NB Blessing is a six-foot tall young man; Constance and Patience are both married, each with one child, and Blessing was married in 2003, and his wife’s name is also Patience.
He was very involved in the local church at Muko, Nyaruhanga, Kacerere and started ordination training in 1973 at Bishop Tucker Theological College, Kampala. After becoming ordained in 1976, he went to All Saints Church in Kabale as vicar. Recognising his leadership qualities, the famous Bishop of Kigezi, Festo Kivengere got Enoch to do the planning in the Diocese of Kigezi.
After the rule of Idi Amin ended in 1979, the Church Missionary Society decided to sponsor two Ugandan priests for degree training in the UK. Enoch was chosen as one through the Church of Uganda Provincial Scholarship Panel, and he went to Wycliffe Hall, Oxford for 1981-84, gaining an honours degree in Theology. In 1983, Enoch founded the African International Christian Ministry with the threefold aims of evangelism, education and caring for others. From his first stay in the UK he had found people who would support this sort of work, and they established the “Friends of AICM” in 1984. This support started largely because of a visit to Kabale during his time at Wycliffe Hall by a team of staff and students from Trinity College, Oxford and Bristol University in 1983 – many of those people are still active supporters of AICM.
In 1989 he returned to the UK for a year to do an MSc degree in Rural Development at Reading University, sponsored by the Friends of AICM in the UK. At the end of this time, he was joined by Phoebe and they were able to visit some of the friends who had supported him in his time here, as well as foster new support. He was made Canon in 1990 and became “Archdeacon General Development” in Kigezi Diocese in 1991.
In 1997, Bishop William, who had succeeded Bishop Festo, retired and, to everyone’s surprise, Enoch was not appointed Bishop of Kigezi in his place. This event was a turning point in the history of AICM, as Enoch quickly made a decision to seek release from his diocesan post and work full time as Director of AICM, which he has done since Oct 1st, 1997.
He is a respected leader and a gifted, even charismatic, preacher who quickly establishes a rapport with his audience; he will seize every opportunity to speak, often at length, and inspires people not just with rhetoric but also with actions. Like many Africans, he is fluent in several languages and can converse in several more; of course, visitors to Kabale are expected to speak extensively as well, with Enoch translating, sentence by sentence!