Kivejinja: A man of many seasons

Al-Hajj Ally Muwabe Kirunda Kivejinja was born on June 12, 1935, and passed on on December 19, 2020.

At the time of his death, Kivejinja was suffering from diabetes, but malaria complicated his situation and he was admitted to Mulago Hospital a couple of weeks. His family says that at first he was tested for COVID-19, and he turned out negative. More tests revealed that he had contracted the deadly virus.

Commonly known as Kirunda Kivejinja, he has been a veteran Ugandan politician and at the time of his death, he had worked in close to 10 ministries under President Yoweri Museveni's Government.

Kivejinja served two Governments in his life; that of President Milton Obote (RIP) and the current one of Museveni. 

During the 1960s he served as a political mobiliser for the Uganda People's Congress, the ruling political party at that time. Since the overthrow of the second Milton Obote regime in 1986, Kivejinja has served in several positions in the government led by Museveni.

At the time of his death, he was the Second Deputy Prime Minister in the Ugandan Cabinet. He was appointed to that position on June 6, 2016.
 
Kivejinja handed over the Ministry for East African Community Affairs early this year to Maj. Gen. Kahinda Otafiire; who had been appointed by the President

His education journey

Kivejinja studied at the Kibuli Junior School and Busoga College Mwiri in Uganda and then took a pre-university course at Madras Christian College before obtaining a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree in Zoology at Delhi University on a Government of India scholarship.

While in India, he was treasurer of the African Students Association which had among its members Bingu wa Mutharika, John Malecela and John Mataure.

Apart from politics, Kivejinja was the author of Uganda: The Crisis of Confidence, a book about Uganda's political history.

His life on politics

2020: Second Deputy Prime Minister

2016-2019: Second Deputy Prime Minister &  Minister of East African Community Affairs

2013 -2016: Senior Presidential Advisor in charge of Veterans

2008-2011: Third Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs 

2006-2008: Third Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Information and National Guidance

2003-2004: Minister in Charge of the Presidency

2001-2003: Deputy National Political Commissar/Director Foreign Affairs at the National Resistance Movement Secretariat

1998: Director, External Relations of the National Resistance Movement Secretariat

1996-1997: Minister without Portfolio in the Government of Uganda

1994-1995: Minister of Works, Transport and Communication

1991-1994: Minister of State for Foreign Affairs

1988-1989: Minister of Information

1986: Minister of Rehabilitation