Gone is SWIPCO's pillar

Agnes Katama reached where very few women get and insisted that women are better managers By Joan Mugenzi DEATH robs the world of useful people. This time round, death has robbed Uganda of Agnes Komukyekya Katama, the managing director of the Swiss Procurement Company (SWIPCO). Katama died in a motor accident on Saturday, December 23 on Fort Portal road near Mubende where she was going for Christmas celebrations and a family reunion. She was travelling with two of her sisters' children who live in the United Kingdom. The children too died on the spot. Her siblings, Arthur and Bernard, in the same cruise, sustained injuries and are in hospital. "I am really shocked. I learnt of her death this morning," said Ben Wacha, MP for Oyam North, when contacted on Tuesday. "She was a very interesting intelligent young woman. She was very composed and I am sure she would have gone very far in her career. It is very sad that she has died. Even the way she died is very shocking," he said. Philip Winyi, the Toro Kingdom spokesman said, "Toro kingdom has been deprived of wise and independent counsel void of syncophacy." Describing Katama, Winyi said, she was a very resolute person. A young woman of courage and determination. "I am not exaggerating. She was incorruptible. She was a woman of high moral stature...the rest of the world may judge, but anybody who knew her can bail me out," said Winyi. At SWIPCO, Katama was not one boss to easily come by. Edward Mugisha, an employee with the company said about her: "I found her exemplary. I don't think in Uganda or anywhere there is a boss like Agnes. I cannot equate her leadership qualities to anyone. She did not carry herself as a boss, but as a colleague, a parent-somebody who wanted you to come up." Katama was the female boss who never believed that the issue of gender arose in management. She reached where very few women get and insisted it was an advantage to be a female manager because women are more resilient. It is this quality that enabled her command a multi-national company. Writing a profile of her in September 1998, Geoffrey Denye Kalebbo described Katama as "too friendly and casual for a conservative managing director." The troubles that surrounded SWIPCO then did not scare her at all. She simply kept her cool and issued a statement to parliament saying her firm should not be blamed for the internal failures in government. After all, she was contented SWIPCO was doing a good job. She said at that time that SWIPCO had saved government 30% of all procurements it handled. Denye, now communications manager of World Vision (Uganda), describes the late Katama as "a very sharp and interesting lady. She was very busy, difficult to set an appointment with but when you got to her, she had all the time for you." Katama's job was no simple job. Government hired SWIPCO to check state contracts. The company manned by this lady was not simple either. The company has the task of saving government monies. Monies that have been known to get lost at the hands of greedy people. The interviewers knew that there was no better person at the time to take on the job. The SWIPCO president, Dr. Enrique Segura, said at the time of Katama's appointment that they interviewed her and noted that she was competent and had a lot of experience. Katama took on the job with zeal. She had to fight corruption on behalf of government, so to say. A lot of corruption is in Uganda's public procurement system. Addressing a group of procurement officers at Mulago Hospital in 1998, Katama pointed out that 60% of corruption in government is in the procurement of goods and services. She noted that corruption goes beyond the understanding that it is theft of money. "Corruption includes negligence on the job, incompetence in making required decisions, ignorance and apathy," she said. With such a job, people would have expected her to say much about her job, but this was not her kind of life. Those around her say that unlike your usual bosses, Katama talked less about her big office, which was charged with handling government tenders above $50,000. Katama was born in 1961 to the Katama family of the royal Babiito clan of Toro. She went to Nakasero Primary School, Makerere College School and Mt. St. Mary's College, Namagunga, then Makerere University for a short stint. This is where she nearly first met her death until God decided otherwise. In 1980, as a first year student, she was noisy and a strong supporter of the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM). She criticised the UPC government and the UPC men wanted her life. Police and UPC students alike thumped her for supporting UPM. Ironically, she flew out of the country on Obote's presidential jet-the very jet of the men that wanted to finish her off. It is while in exile in Kenya that Katama's eyes were opened to a bigger world. She got a scholarship to Spain to read journalism and later International Relations and Diplomacy negotiations. Despite all the exposure and the kind of environment she grew up in, in Kololo, Katama remained your culturally groomed princess. Katama would always kneel, gracefully touch the forehead and chin of her father, in what she defined as a greeting of loving respect. She also knelt before King Oyo whenever she greeted him. "He is a child, but he is my king," she explained to a puzzled onlooker. In the Catholic Church circles, Katama will be remembered for her anti family planning crusade. She believed Africa was not yet ripe for Family Planning and talk about birth control was crap. Her argument as quoted in September 1998 is: "It is a few educated with the ability to care for more children embracing the control. The poor who have no means of giving their children a livelihood are still having more children. Does this in anyway improve the wellbeing of our children?" Katama was also a moralist who felt that if you tamper with the dignity of a person, you have lost that person and eventually the society. Ends