Widow explains why Mutebile did not have a house in Kampala

The widow of the late governor of Bank of Uganda, Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, has explained why he did not construct a house in Kampala.

Betty Mutebile said she tried several times to urge her husband to construct a home in Kampala to no avail. She made the remarks at Mutebile’s vigil at the official governor’s residence in Kololo, Kampala. It is owned by Bank of Uganda.

“We need to prepare a place. This is not our place,” Betty said she would tell Mutebile. “But he would discourage me. He would not give me a clear answer. All my life, I never wanted to disturb him because it’s like he had a sixth sense. It’s like there is a way he would know something. He would tell me ‘you wait, I will tell you’.”

She said she would wait for months, before bringing up the subject of them owning a home in Kampala again to no vail.

Betty said she at one time approached the then Prime Minister, Ruhakana Rugunda, to intervene in the situation as her husband’s tenure in office was ending.

Mutebile was, however, adamant that he was “going no where.”

“He was frail. It was his brain working, but he told me ‘I am going nowhere’. I rested my case. I never shared it with anybody.”

Betty’s remarks came after the deputy Speaker of Parliament, Anita Among, had asked the Government Chief Whip, Thomas Tayebwa, to ensure that the former Bank of Uganda Governor official residence in Kololo is given to the family in his honour.

Among made the request when she joined the relatives and friends of the late professor to condole with Betty and the children at his residence in Kololo.

“As a young intern at Centenary Bank Gulu branch, Professor Mutebile who had visited the bank recommended me for promotion after watching me go about my work. On his advice, I was promoted to the level of a supervisor and he became my inspiration in the banking sector,” Among said.

She also said at one time former President Apollo Milton Obote’s wife Mama Miria Obote was sick and she went with her son to visit her.

“We were shocked to see professor Mutebile kneeling down to greet her.  Humility, honesty and integrity are what defined his life as a servant of this country,” Among added.

She eulogised Mutebile, saying he was not corrupt.

“We are not going to say he (Mutebile) stole money or he has other buildings. No. Betty must remain in the house. When another governor comes, we shall get another official building,” Among said.

Her suggestion drew mixed reactions in Parliament and among members of the public.

Mutebile will be laid to rest in his ancestral home in Kabale district tomorrow, after a church service at Rugarama Church of Uganda Cathedral in Kabale Municipality.