Occasionally he would throw the grains into his mouth or roll out a fat cake from his pockets to eat silently. With these gestures, Koma was trying to reflect that he also wanted to live like peasants. Lekoma describes Koma's death as a great loss to the nation and those who admired his ideas beyond Botswana. He first met Koma or 'KK' in 1965 in Mahalapye while he was in the employ of the Bechuanaland colonial government in the Ministry of Agriculture. "He reminded and encouraged me to be part of a team working on the formation of a movement called the Botswana Youth Federation (BYF). The main function of the BYF was to mobilise the youth and educate them politically and to source foreign scholarships for those wanting to further their education as Botswana then had limited opportunities for further education."
A month before Botswana attained independence, Koma's BYF sent about 68 young Batswana to foreign countries mainly in the Eastern bloc to study. Other young Batswana secured scholarships to go to France, West Germany, and Britain.
