Ex-minister Ateker Ejalu is dead
Dec 20, 2008
ONE of President Yoweri Museveni’s first ministers, Ateker Ejalu, has died. Ejalu, 69, died of meningitis at Nairobi Hospital where he had been admitted for a month. He first served as a minister of state for special duties in 1986.
By Conan Businge
ONE of President Yoweri Museveni’s first ministers, Ateker Ejalu, has died. Ejalu, 69, died of meningitis at Nairobi Hospital where he had been admitted for a month. He first served as a minister of state for special duties in 1986.
He later served as Board chairman of the The New Vision Printing and Publishing Corporation from 1998 to 2002. He also served as a minister of information under the Uganda National Liberation Front government.
According to his son Kwame Ejalu, Ejalu was on November 14, transferred from his home village to International Hospital-Kampala. Four days later, he was referred to Nairobi hospital.
His wife Janet had joined him last month from London, three days after being referred to Nairobi hospital.
At The New Vision, the Managing Director, Robert Kabushenga, said that during Ejalu’s service to the company, “he (Ejalu) was a good political advisor. It is a great loss. He so much helped the company to draw a clear line between politics and commercial interests.â€
He started the Ekanya cartoons strip that used to run in The New Vision before handing it over to the late Dr. Tumusiime Rushedge a.k.a Tom Rush.
“Ekanya’s striped shirt was Ejalu’s trademark style of dressing.â€
“Both Ejalu and Rushedge are dead. It is an end of a great era,†Kabushenga added. The Company Secretary, Garvase Ndyanabo, said: “Ejalu was a simple, down-to-earth and very friendly administrator.â€
Ejalu served as chairman of Liberty Insurance Brokers, a consultancy firm that recently merged with a brokerage company from South and adopted its name; Alexander Forbs Uganda Limited.
He was a Uganda People’s Congress party die-hard and served on the Constitutional Review Commission.
The hardworking and composed Ejalu last participated in active politics in 2001 when he stood for parliamentary elections for Soroti County, and he lost.
Though a trained solicitor, Ejalu abandoned the profession for journalism. His interest in this field began at Ntare School where he edited the students’ magazine.
The late Dr Milton Obote at one time appointed him as the editor of the People newspaper in the 1960’s; a mouthpiece for UPC, a job that saw him climb the ladder. He later served as an editor of Uganda Argus.
The Indian High Commission organised a UNESCO scholarship for him to pursue a postgraduate diploma in Journalism in India for one year, in 1971.
After his studies, Ejalu worked as the Director for Information Services of the East Africa Community in Arusha.
Ejalu lived in Tanzania until the East African Community crumbled in 1976, despite efforts by Amin to get him out of the job on grounds of sabotage.
In 1980, Ejalu worked as the Managing Director for Uganda Railways Corporation until 1985.
ONE of President Yoweri Museveni’s first ministers, Ateker Ejalu, has died. Ejalu, 69, died of meningitis at Nairobi Hospital where he had been admitted for a month. He first served as a minister of state for special duties in 1986.
He later served as Board chairman of the The New Vision Printing and Publishing Corporation from 1998 to 2002. He also served as a minister of information under the Uganda National Liberation Front government.
According to his son Kwame Ejalu, Ejalu was on November 14, transferred from his home village to International Hospital-Kampala. Four days later, he was referred to Nairobi hospital.
His wife Janet had joined him last month from London, three days after being referred to Nairobi hospital.
At The New Vision, the Managing Director, Robert Kabushenga, said that during Ejalu’s service to the company, “he (Ejalu) was a good political advisor. It is a great loss. He so much helped the company to draw a clear line between politics and commercial interests.â€
He started the Ekanya cartoons strip that used to run in The New Vision before handing it over to the late Dr. Tumusiime Rushedge a.k.a Tom Rush.
“Ekanya’s striped shirt was Ejalu’s trademark style of dressing.â€
“Both Ejalu and Rushedge are dead. It is an end of a great era,†Kabushenga added. The Company Secretary, Garvase Ndyanabo, said: “Ejalu was a simple, down-to-earth and very friendly administrator.â€
Ejalu served as chairman of Liberty Insurance Brokers, a consultancy firm that recently merged with a brokerage company from South and adopted its name; Alexander Forbs Uganda Limited.
He was a Uganda People’s Congress party die-hard and served on the Constitutional Review Commission.
The hardworking and composed Ejalu last participated in active politics in 2001 when he stood for parliamentary elections for Soroti County, and he lost.
Though a trained solicitor, Ejalu abandoned the profession for journalism. His interest in this field began at Ntare School where he edited the students’ magazine.
The late Dr Milton Obote at one time appointed him as the editor of the People newspaper in the 1960’s; a mouthpiece for UPC, a job that saw him climb the ladder. He later served as an editor of Uganda Argus.
The Indian High Commission organised a UNESCO scholarship for him to pursue a postgraduate diploma in Journalism in India for one year, in 1971.
After his studies, Ejalu worked as the Director for Information Services of the East Africa Community in Arusha.
Ejalu lived in Tanzania until the East African Community crumbled in 1976, despite efforts by Amin to get him out of the job on grounds of sabotage.
In 1980, Ejalu worked as the Managing Director for Uganda Railways Corporation until 1985.