By Mercy Agumenaitwe.
The former minister for ICT Aggrey Awori, also an ex presidential candidate in the 2001 memorable presidential elections has passed on.
Awori who has been hospitalized for a couple of weeks at a private hospital in Naalya Kampala has according to a reliable source succumbed to the dreaded COVID-19.
He died on Monday afternoon at the age of 82. Peter Oguttu a close friend told reports.
“He has been sick for about a month and I have been in touch with him until today when his wife, Thelma told me that he has died,” said Mr Oguttu who described his relationship with Mr Awori as one of “brotherhood.” Oguttu said,.
Oguttu who remained sceptical of Awori’s death had this to say; “you know what’s currently going on in the country, but he’s been having pressure and other diseases as well.”
The deceased wife, Thelma Awori told this reporter that Awori died at around 2pm.
Awori is well remembered as voted the best legislator in the sixth Parliament and a staunch UPC disciple which he later disowned before crossing to the ruling (NRM) party in 2007.
In 2011, he contested to Busia Municipality MP seat but lost to Kevinah Taaka Wanaha, a Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) leaning candidate.
He retired from active politics before President Museveni appointed him minister.
He served as Minister for Information and Communications Technology from February 16, 2009 to May 27, 2011.
Born on February 23, 1939, in Budimo Village, Busia District, near the Ugandan/Kenyan border as the 10th of 17 children to Canon Jeremiah Musungu Awori, a pioneer African priest of the Anglican Church in East Africa and Ms Mariamu Odongo Awori, a nurse and community teacher, Awori’s siblings include the ninth Kenyan vice-president Arthur Moody Awori and Mary Okelo, the first woman in East Africa to head a Barclays Bank branch and the founder of Kenya’s women only bank; the Kenya Women Finance Trust.
Awori owned an urban home in Busia Municipality and a country home in neighboring Bugiri District.
He attended Nabumali High School in Mbale District and King’s College Budo, in Wakiso District, both in Uganda.
He later joined where he graduated in Bachelor of political economics. He also had a Master of Arts in economics from Syracuse University in the U.S.
In 1967, Awori was appointed the first local director of Uganda Television (UTV).
In 1971 Awori was jailed for two months after Idi Amin’s coup, because he didn’t broadcast a speech which president Amin gave immediately after a coup, lying to him that they were live on air.
This forced him into exile in neighbouring Kenya, where he taught political journalism at the University of Nairobi until 1976 and then traveled around Africa visiting Tanzania, Liberia and Senegal and returning to Nairobi in 1979.
After Idi Amin was overthrown in 1979, Awori returned to Uganda. He ran for a seat in the National Assembly of Uganda, but lost. He then became Ambassador to the United States, until being transferred by Tito Okello Lutwa in 1985. He served as Uganda’s Ambassador to Belgium from 1985 until 1987, when he was dropped by President Museveni.
After a brief asylum in Nairobi, Awori started to build up a rebel group operating from eastern Uganda named Force Obote Back Again (FOBA). He stated that his reason for doing so was mainly anger at Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA), which had confiscated his property. In 1992, he dissolved his rebel group, which had consisted mainly of young fighters.
In 1993, Awori met with Museveni in New York and then was elected to the Constituent Assembly to make the Constitution and as a member of parliament.
He came third in the 2001 presidential elections, polling 1.41 percent of the vote.
He represented Samia-Bugwe North, Busia District in Parliament from 2001 until 2006.
Awori was an outspoken opposition member of parliament for the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) political party. In 2007, he abandoned the UPC and joined the ruling National Resistance Movement political party.
He is survived with a wife Thelma Awori, former Director of Africa at the United Nations Development Programme and six children.
Profile: courtesy of Wikipedia.
