Rugunda’s rise from UPC youth winger to premier

KAMPALA- From 1950s to the late 70s was a grooming period for Uganda’s future political leaders.

In the furnace were people like Bank of Uganda chief Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile, Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) president Olara Otunnu and former minister Omara Atubo, among others.

One of the youth that were constantly referred to as “leaders of tomorrow” in the 60s was Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, the man who President Museveni appointed Prime Minister last Friday.

But how has a man so composed and a politician too detached from confrontational politics that Uganda’s game has become been able to rise from among the pack to being the country’s number six?

“Oh, he was very vocal and articulate. That’s how he caught Obote’s (Milton) eye and he used to refer to him as my youth from Kigezi,” said Mr Atubo.

Mr Atubo says he has known Dr Rugunda for 50 years.
“When he was in Mwiri College, I was in Kisubi and as student leaders, he was president of National Union of Students of Uganda (Nusu) and later became chairman. At university, he did medicine and I did law,” he says.

The rise
Born November 7, 1947 in Kabale District, Dr Rugunda’s raise to national politics was in the 60s while a student activist at Busoga College Mwiri where he was head prefect and later Makerere University, where he was president of Nusu, a political youth group. Nusu was a formidable conduit for President Obote’s UPC political aspirations, not only at university but in the countryside too.

As Frederick Byaruhanga notes in Student Power in Africa’s Higher Education: A Case Study of Makerere University, students were always dispatched to upcountry stations to articulate to the masses the meaning of socialism and in particular Obote’s Common Man’s Charter.

Dr Rugunda, who was then a youth winger in the UPC, was one of those who were constantly dispatched. “We were committed radicals who denounced imperialism and all forms of oppressions,” he described their actions, then, in a 2002 interview quoted in Byaruhanga’s book.

Former UPC ideologue and current opposition Chief Whip, Ms Cecilia Ogwal, says Dr Rugunda and Mutebile were among the well groomed cadres of UPC that Obote believed would rise to take the leadership of the country.
However, his robust political activism hounded him into exile when Amin started clamping down on those with divergent political views.

It was while in exile that the United States trained pediatrician continued with his political activism but this time round, with the National Resistance Movement and when NRM took power in 1986, he returned to serve in cabinet as minister for health and later Kabale county representative in Parliament.
He has served in Cabinet ever since, holding different portfolios and side responsibilities including being president of the governing council of the United Nations Environment Programme and leading Uganda’s negotiating team in the Juba peace talks with LRA rebel leader Joseph Kony.
When he was appointed as Uganda’s Permanent Representative to the United Nation; the position was elevated to Cabinet Ministerial level. He held the position for two years, including being the chair of the UN Security Council.
He was later posted to ICT ministry and later sent back to Health where he started in 1986; and last Friday, President brought him closer by asking him to lead Government Business in Parliament and be the country’s Chief Minister.

Ndugu is a tag he got way back during his activism times. “It is a historical tag because we have always referred to each other in the struggle as Ndugu (brother) it so happened that it stuck on me,” he said in a phone interview.

What the appointment brings to the table?

Dr Rugunda himself says it is not about his character or the kind of freshness he brings to the job but the zeal to consolidate what has already been done by the Movement and pushing government programmes as prioritised by cabinet and the national development plan.

“As leaders in NRM, that is precisely our responsibility. I am not supposed to bring personal freshness but implement government programs and policies that have been agreed up on and where necessary introduce policies,” he says.
But Cecilia Ogwal, one of the women who saw him grow in UPC, says Dr Rugunda brings to the job a very balanced person who knows how to handle conflict.

“He is a solid person and cuts across political and tribal boarders. I see him comfortably relating with people from beyond western Uganda,” she says. “He will do more in uniting people and bringing freshness to the job.”

Many political commentators look at his persona while others are alive to the question of what his appointment means to the Kigezi politics and to the political terrain towards 2016 general elections.
His character, political scientist and researcher, Dr Frederick Kisekka-Ntale says, gives him a chance to play as a unifier in a party that is crumbling under the weight of cliqueism.

“He comes to bridge the gap between the old guard and the young and to play as an arbiter and party unifier and this he will manage because of the great respect he commands in the party,” said.

Kisekka-Ntale also argues that given Dr Rugunda’s UPC and political activism background, he comes to the table with a very rich political socialisation history and experience, which is not only timely as the country heads to 2016 general elections, but could also help in plugging the political holes both in NRM and at national level.

THE DOWN SIDE

In as much as he has those good qualities, Kisekka-Ntale says, Rugunda’s latest elevation is a surprise. “Museveni had treated him as one of those old guards who he wanted out of party politics and posting him to the UN in 2009 was kind of a send home package,” he says. Why then did he return him to politics?

“President Museveni has been running short of those to trust politically and so he had to go back to the cupboard to see which politically nonthreatening cups he could still use in his political play while stabilizing national, regional and party politics,” Kisekka-Ntale said.

He further says as a leader who is trying to fight political greed and contest against his seat from within the party, President Museveni had to bring closer a person who does not have any ‘Amamaism’- stealth greed for power.
Could it then imply that the ‘indecisive leader’ tag that many put around Dr Rugunda’s neck be true and could play for President Museveni? “I believe in teamwork and collective responsibility and will ensure to do that,” Rugunda dismissively says about the tag. “It is not about personal decisions but decisions that further and help in the implementation of government programmes that will in turn help the people of Uganda.”

WHAT THET SAY

Vincent Kyamadidi MP Rwampara County. “I have known him as a principled man and very committed to work. I have no resentment whatsoever that he will do a good job. I have also not known him not to be involved in any cliques and the politics of intrigue.”

Gerald Karuhanga MP Youth Western. “I don’t think he will change much, because we know the circumstances under which he is going to work.”

Dr Ruhakana Rugunda.
Age: 67
Education: He studied at Kigezi High School and Busoga College Mwiri, before joining Makerere University Medical School and later the University of Zambia where he studied medicine, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery. He later studied at the University of California, Berkeley and obtained Master degree in Science in Public Health. He worked as medical officer in Zambia, a physician at DC General Hospital, Washington, and at Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya..
Work experience: He served as Uganda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1994 to 1996 and as Minister of Internal Affairs from 2003 to 2009. Subsequently he was Permanent Representative to the UN from 2009 to 2011 and Minister of Health from 2013 to 2014. He was on Friday appointed Prime Minister replacing Mr Amama Mbabazi, who was dropped from Cabinet.

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