Mukula, the ''Prisoner number one''

By Charles Etukuri

SUNDAY VISION - Soroti Municipality Member of Parliament and former health minister, Mike Mukula, still lives large despite being imprisoned. He has kept himself happy and confident.

On January 18, 2013, the Anti-Corruption court convicted Mukula and sentenced him to four years in prison for embezzling sh210m from Global Alliance Vaccination for Immunisation (GAVI).

Mukula was allocated to block B, usually reserved for the affluent. The next day, he was ushered into the prison reception and allocated a prison number, MBP 148/2013 and a yellow uniform.

His clothes and other items were taken to the stores and an account opened for him. Being a special guest, prison allowed his family to bring him better bedding. Prison officials re-arranged the ward and depopulated it to create room for him.

Prisoners kept flocking in to see the ex-minister on his first day in prison. He also spent the better part of the day in the administration block receiving close family members and lawyers.

Prison bars cooked food for prisoners, but after a lengthy discussion, the authorities accepted the legislator’s family to bring him raw food to cook within his confinement.

It was here that former socialite Meddie Ssentongo who was sent to jail last year over theft, came in handy. Nsereko became one of Mukula’s aides.

On Tuesday January 22, which was the official visitation day for Murchison Bay Prison, guests who included his fellow legislators, opinion leaders, friends and electorate from Teso, thronged the facility to see Mukula.

Overwhelmed by the large numbers, prison set up a special book for the legislator. Warders coined the term “prisoner number one” to describe Mukula.

Given his status, Mukula was allowed to meet some of his visitors at the welfare office. Long queues formed as people waited eagerly to see Mukula.

His visitors have so far filled seven counter books and each book contains about 250 names, bringing the number to 1,750 guests. However, many others had visited before the special visitors book was created. Sources say in total the legislator has received over 2,000 guests.

Top on the list of guests who have registered to see Mukula include former gender minister Syda Bumba, his former co-accused, Alex Kamugisha and colleague in the health Ministry, as well as Bishops from Teso, who visited President Museveni in Rwakitura to plead for their son.

Known and defined for his well groomed looks and suits, Mukula still looks good in his prison uniform. On a normal prison visitation day, Mukula starts receiving visitors from 9:30am until 4:00pm. The ex-minister remains in high spirits, often hugging his guests. In one of the visits, Mukula joked that his yellow uniform made him more NRM.

“I am now representing my party fully, I sleep in yellow and wake up in yellow,” he said. Yellow is the colour associated with the ruling National Resistance Movement to which he is the party vice-chairperson in charge of eastern Uganda.

Mukula receives newspapers daily from his friends and family members. When not being visited, he keeps himself busy by watching TV and listening to radio. After his arrival, a bigger screen was brought in to replace the smaller one. His B1 block had its toilet system fixed. Prison authorities dismissed allegations that Mukula had financed the repairs.

He mingles freely with the other prisoners and being multilingual, he has charmed both the warders and prisoners. Whenever he is set to appear in court, his sharp clean suit is brought in by family members a day before and kept at the reception.

He is subjected to the normal prison regulations and any book brought in for him to be read must be checked by prison authorities. At 4:00pm he is locked up in his room and let out at 8:30am.

Mukula will appear again in Court on March 13 when his appeal will be heard.