Ugandans greeted with much excitement last week when the Seychelles vice president Danny Faure was proclaimed to complete the five-year term of resigning President James Michel and would be sworn in on Oct 16.
Not much is known about Danny Faure early life but he was born on 8th May 1962 in Kilembe Mines, Uganda where his father, Jacques Faure was an expatriate engineer. He is a graduate in political sciences from an institution in Cuba.
Faure was Leader of Government Business in the National Assembly from 1993 to 1998, then served in the cabinet as Minister of Education from 1998 to 2006. He has been the Minister of Finance since 2006 in the cabinet of President James Michel. He was appointed as Vice President in 2010, while retaining the finance portfolio.
More Seychelles – Ugandan connections
Interestingly, Seychelles traces its connection with Uganda to the 19th century when Buganda and Bunyoro revolted against the British Protector- ate. In 1899 that revolt was crushed. Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda and Omukama Kabalega of Bunyoro were captured and deported to the Seychelles. Kabaka Mwanga died in exile while his counterpart lived on the island for 22 years. In 1923, Kabalega was allowed to return to Bunyoro but died in Jinja on April 6, 1923, shortly before he could reach the kingdom that had been wrested from him by the British.
Several Ugandans have been known to occupy key positions in the Seychelles government, notably Justice Fredrick Egonda-Ntende, who is the country’s Chief Justice and most recently Justice Duncan Gaswaga who was re-appointed as judge of the Supreme Court.
Most of the Ugandans in Seychelles are secondary school teachers and a few teach in the tertiary institutions and are scattered all over the Island nation although most of them reside near their schools.
Some of the Ugandans in the Island nation have come under scathing attack from the nationals; accusing Danny Faure of favouring his ‘people’.
Elly Karuhanga is the Honorary Consul of Seychelles in Uganda.