Katuntu gunning for bigger things
AT first sight, he will impress you as a businessman. He speaks with the fluency and calmness of a businessman destined for big money.
By Fred Nangoli
AT first sight, he will impress you as a businessman. He speaks with the fluency and calmness of a businessman destined for big money. He laughs a lot, but not unnecessarily. He has a witty sense of humour. But let not your first impression be your last. Behind the facade of an easy-going fellow, is the conviction and confidence of a politician gunning for bigger things in a game, which all his family members have shunned.
Due to politics, he spent much of his childhood without his daddy. But Abdul Katuntu is the member of Parliament (MP) for Bugweri county in Iganga district. He is also one of the five Uganda’s represantives to the Pan-African Parliament. Early last month, the African the African Union (AU) legislature appointed Katuntu to lead a mission of pan African parliamentarians to the strife-stricken Darfur region in Sudan. He is also the AU’s secretary for legal affairs, justice and human rights.
He says he is determined to take up any political opportunity to serve his nation and Africa. In the past couple of months, Katuntu and other Parliamentary Advocacy Forum (PAFO) members were roughed up in Jinja, but that did not remind him of his father’s warning and the negative attitude his family has towards politics. Instead, he vows to push on.
Until his election to parliament in 2001, Katuntu, a son of a renown Ugandan spy, was a little known personality in the politics of Uganda. As a lawyer, he was limited to the courts of law and his law firm. Today, there is no doubt that at 36, he is one of the most outspoken opposition politicians.
“My father was an active politician and it is because of him that I am also in politics. I remember when he had returned from exile in 1987, I travelled with him. He introduced me to many Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) politicians. That is how I got into the politics of UPC and the country,†he says. Katuntu is the son to the late Erias Mulawa, a professional spy, highly trained in Russia, Israel and Egypt. “Mulawa was close to the UPC leadership. He had some disagreements with former president Dr Milton Obote, but also had immense respect for him,†Katuntu says.
Unfortunately, Mulawa had a difficult experience in politics. It was obvious to his family that if he was not attending to state duties, he was in exile.
“I am told that I was born when he was out of the country. He was hardly home with us. I grew up under the care of my stepmothers,†says the MP, who adds that one thing he missed out as a child was his daddy’s company.When Idi Amin captured power in 1971, Katuntu’s daddy fled to exile. He returned after 1979 and resumed office after the 1980 general elections. However, it was not long before he went to exile again in 1989.
“He finally returned in 1987 with the help of one of my step mothers, who was very close to the late Fred Rwegyema. He disassociated himself from politics till his death in 1996. He felt he had suffered enough and did not want us (his children) in politics,†he adds.“If my daddy was alive today, I would not be in politics, he was very critical about it.†To keep in line with his father’s wish, Katuntu opted to study Law at Makerere University in 1987, but it was before he found himself in the guild politics. “At the university, I found the guild politics very interesting. I actively got involved and served as a member of the guild representative council,†he says. “I went to Makerere at a time when the NRM government had just come to power. It had all the goodwill of the people and I was almost tempted to believe them because of the influence of people like Brig. Kale Kaihuru, Col. Kahinda Otafire, Amanya Mushega and Col. Kiiza Besigye. They were intellectuals and an interesting lot to listen to. I must say I almost joined the Movement.â€
In 1996, Katuntu established his own law firm. But five years after his father’s death, he put on hold his fathers warning and joined national politics.
He contested parliamentary elections in Bugweri county in Iganga district and was elected the area MP.
Born in 1965, Katuntu studied at Buyanga Church of Uganda Primary School, Iganga Town Council Primary School, Kiira College Butiki and Busoga College Mwiri, before joining Maskerere University. He joined Makerere University in 1987.
Like many young people, Katuntu was a stubborn youth. It is said that while at Kiira College Butiki he earned himself a two-week suspension for escaping from school to attend a village wedding in the neigbourhood.
There are also claims by his university friends that while at campus, he was part of the notorious click of the then Northcourt Hall students, who were involved in student activism and radicalism.
The group, according to one of Katuntu’s friends, often drove university tractors, which they popularly refereed to as armoured personnel carriers (APCs) into the university football pitch to disrupt crucial games. “At one time, they drove a tractor upto the centre of the university playground and brought the game to a halt. That incidence explains the presence of a fence around the university’s main playground today,†says the friend.
However, Katuntu is quick to defend himself. “It is true Northcourt Hall students were involved in a series of student activism and radicalism, but I was sick when the group drove a tractor into the pitch. I was not part of the group,†he says. After his university studies, Katuntu, a father of two, worked as a state attorney in the Ministry of Justice and at the Directorate of Public Prosecution. “It was difficult for a person making a legitimate living to work in the civil service.
The salary could hardly support you for a week,†he says. Although he is a staunch UPC supporter and Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) promoter, Katuntu is critical of the past regimes, whose leaders he says made grave and avoidable mistakes.
The MP is ready to take up any opportunity that comes his way if it is for the purpose of serving the nation.
“I am not saying that I want to be a president of Uganda, but I am willing to take up any opportunity – however humble, or however big.â€
AT first sight, he will impress you as a businessman. He speaks with the fluency and calmness of a businessman destined for big money. He laughs a lot, but not unnecessarily. He has a witty sense of humour. But let not your first impression be your last. Behind the facade of an easy-going fellow, is the conviction and confidence of a politician gunning for bigger things in a game, which all his family members have shunned.
Due to politics, he spent much of his childhood without his daddy. But Abdul Katuntu is the member of Parliament (MP) for Bugweri county in Iganga district. He is also one of the five Uganda’s represantives to the Pan-African Parliament. Early last month, the African the African Union (AU) legislature appointed Katuntu to lead a mission of pan African parliamentarians to the strife-stricken Darfur region in Sudan. He is also the AU’s secretary for legal affairs, justice and human rights.
He says he is determined to take up any political opportunity to serve his nation and Africa. In the past couple of months, Katuntu and other Parliamentary Advocacy Forum (PAFO) members were roughed up in Jinja, but that did not remind him of his father’s warning and the negative attitude his family has towards politics. Instead, he vows to push on.
Until his election to parliament in 2001, Katuntu, a son of a renown Ugandan spy, was a little known personality in the politics of Uganda. As a lawyer, he was limited to the courts of law and his law firm. Today, there is no doubt that at 36, he is one of the most outspoken opposition politicians.
“My father was an active politician and it is because of him that I am also in politics. I remember when he had returned from exile in 1987, I travelled with him. He introduced me to many Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) politicians. That is how I got into the politics of UPC and the country,†he says. Katuntu is the son to the late Erias Mulawa, a professional spy, highly trained in Russia, Israel and Egypt. “Mulawa was close to the UPC leadership. He had some disagreements with former president Dr Milton Obote, but also had immense respect for him,†Katuntu says.
Unfortunately, Mulawa had a difficult experience in politics. It was obvious to his family that if he was not attending to state duties, he was in exile.
“I am told that I was born when he was out of the country. He was hardly home with us. I grew up under the care of my stepmothers,†says the MP, who adds that one thing he missed out as a child was his daddy’s company.When Idi Amin captured power in 1971, Katuntu’s daddy fled to exile. He returned after 1979 and resumed office after the 1980 general elections. However, it was not long before he went to exile again in 1989.
“He finally returned in 1987 with the help of one of my step mothers, who was very close to the late Fred Rwegyema. He disassociated himself from politics till his death in 1996. He felt he had suffered enough and did not want us (his children) in politics,†he adds.“If my daddy was alive today, I would not be in politics, he was very critical about it.†To keep in line with his father’s wish, Katuntu opted to study Law at Makerere University in 1987, but it was before he found himself in the guild politics. “At the university, I found the guild politics very interesting. I actively got involved and served as a member of the guild representative council,†he says. “I went to Makerere at a time when the NRM government had just come to power. It had all the goodwill of the people and I was almost tempted to believe them because of the influence of people like Brig. Kale Kaihuru, Col. Kahinda Otafire, Amanya Mushega and Col. Kiiza Besigye. They were intellectuals and an interesting lot to listen to. I must say I almost joined the Movement.â€
In 1996, Katuntu established his own law firm. But five years after his father’s death, he put on hold his fathers warning and joined national politics.
He contested parliamentary elections in Bugweri county in Iganga district and was elected the area MP.
Born in 1965, Katuntu studied at Buyanga Church of Uganda Primary School, Iganga Town Council Primary School, Kiira College Butiki and Busoga College Mwiri, before joining Maskerere University. He joined Makerere University in 1987.
Like many young people, Katuntu was a stubborn youth. It is said that while at Kiira College Butiki he earned himself a two-week suspension for escaping from school to attend a village wedding in the neigbourhood.
There are also claims by his university friends that while at campus, he was part of the notorious click of the then Northcourt Hall students, who were involved in student activism and radicalism.
The group, according to one of Katuntu’s friends, often drove university tractors, which they popularly refereed to as armoured personnel carriers (APCs) into the university football pitch to disrupt crucial games. “At one time, they drove a tractor upto the centre of the university playground and brought the game to a halt. That incidence explains the presence of a fence around the university’s main playground today,†says the friend.
However, Katuntu is quick to defend himself. “It is true Northcourt Hall students were involved in a series of student activism and radicalism, but I was sick when the group drove a tractor into the pitch. I was not part of the group,†he says. After his university studies, Katuntu, a father of two, worked as a state attorney in the Ministry of Justice and at the Directorate of Public Prosecution. “It was difficult for a person making a legitimate living to work in the civil service.
The salary could hardly support you for a week,†he says. Although he is a staunch UPC supporter and Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) promoter, Katuntu is critical of the past regimes, whose leaders he says made grave and avoidable mistakes.
The MP is ready to take up any opportunity that comes his way if it is for the purpose of serving the nation.
“I am not saying that I want to be a president of Uganda, but I am willing to take up any opportunity – however humble, or however big.â€