Capt. Mike Mukula to quit politics

May 10, 2015

The NRM National Vice Chairman; East and Member of Parliament for Soroti municipality, Capt. Mike Mukula is set to quit elective politics

By Samuel Ouga


The NRM National Vice Chairman; East and Member of Parliament for Soroti municipality, Capt. Mike Mukula is set to quit elective politics.

He made the announcement during a public farewell rally in Soroti yesterday. Speaking to a mammoth crowd of supporters who filled Soroti municipal sports ground, the flight Captain announced;
“Today I declare that I will not vie for Soroti municipality MP seat in 2016.”
“Grassroots support for me has been humbling but I bid them farewell today despite of my grassroots popularity. I thanked my people for the sustained support,” he said.

A farewell party was later held at Trends Club where supporters drunk and danced till morning. There were special performances by music artistes including Bebe cool.

Background
Airline Captain George Michael Mukula, commonly known as Mike Mukula, is a professional pilot, businessman and politician in Uganda, the third-largest economy in the East African Community.
Airline Captain George Michael Mukula, commonly known as Mike Mukula, is a professional pilot, businessman and politician in Uganda, the third-largest economy in the East African Community. He is the current Member of Parliament representing Soroti Municipality. He has served in that position since 2001. He has previously served as State Minister of Health, from 2001 until 2006.

Early life and education
Mike Mukula was born in Soroti, Teso sub-region, Eastern Uganda, on 27 August 1956. He attended local schools before he was admitted to Kenya School of Flying, at Wilson Airport in Nairobi, Kenya's capital city. He completed his pilot's training in the United States. In 2005, he was awarded the degree of Master of Business Administration by Nkumba University.

In 2009 he was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by Latin University of Theology, based in Torrance, California, USA.


Career
In the late 1980s Mike Mukula worked as a personal pilot to President Yoweri Museveni. Mukula owned a fleet of Cessna aircraft which he leased out. He would personally pilot the president in one of those planes.
Mukula owns a couple of other businesses that including a construction company, Voice of Teso radio in Soroti, Voice of Busoga and owns an aviation school in Kampala, among other entities.

He entered politics in 2001, when he successfully contested for the Soroti Municipality parliamentary seat. He has continuously occupied that position since, successfully defending it in 2006 and in 2011.
In 2001, he was appointed State Minister for Health, serving in that position until 2006. In the cabinet reshuffle of 23 May 2006, President Museveni dropped him from cabinet.

Controversy
In June 2006, a Commission of Inquiry into the misuse of funds of the Global Fund for AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis in its report, recommended that the then Minister of Health, Jim Muhwezi and his two Ministers of State, Captain Mike Mukula and Dr. Alex Kamugisha, be prosecuted for misuse of public funds.

In January 2013, he was found charged with embezzlement of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) fund and sentenced to four years in prison.

Capt. Mike Mukula appealed and the appellate court dismissed the embezzlement charges in March 2013. The Anti-Corruption court judge; Justice David Wangutusi ruled that Mukula was innocent, adding that the lower court ignored vital evidence in the case

Personal life
Capt Mike Mukula is married and a father of five children. He is currently the NRM National Vice Chairman for Eastern region.

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