SERIES NEW VISION, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 13 abandoned the car in Gulu and found the FACT FILE quickest public means back to Kampala. That night, our guard intercepted intruders. He said three men wearing dark glasses had gained access to our compound at 1:30am, armed with pistols. When he intercepted them, His milestones they claimed to have been looking for their friends’ car in our parking lot. Kategaya knew • Born Friday, July 4, 1943 in Kyamate, Ntungamo that these were Amin’s soldiers trailing him. district to Yosia Kategaya and Erina Mpumbya. Both The following day, soldiers stormed the offi ce his parents were Born-Again Christians. of Kategaya’s colleague, Akena p’Ojok, at Amber • Attended Kyamate Primary School, Mbarara High House. He escaped through the back door. School and later Ntare School from 1961 to 1966. Kategaya came back home worried and told me • He then joined the University of Dar-es-Salaam, Akena had disappeared. He then went to fi nd graduating with a Bachelor of Laws degree. his comrade and when he found him, helped to sneak him out to Kenya. • Was part of President Yoweri Museveni’s Front for This, for me, was an indicator of worse days National Salvation (FRONASA), a group of Ugandan to come. Extrajudicial killings were common; exiles in Tanzania, who plotted to topple Idi Amin in soldiers had executed people at the City Square 1979 with the help of the Tanzanian forces. and the Clock Tower. Kategaya said he would • In 1980, he co-founded the Uganda Patriotic rather continue the struggle in another country Movement, headed by Museveni, to contest in the than risk being slaughtered like a goat in his elections. own country. • He later served in the ‘External Wing’ of the rebel GOING INTO EXILE National Resistance Movement (NRM) and National In August 1973, we had our fi rst child, Julius. ERIYA Resistance Army (NRA) during the guerrilla At that point, Kategaya decided that we should struggle against the Milton Obote II administration leave Uganda. One morning, he asked me to (1981-1985) pack a few things and prepare to leave. When • Kategaya was one of the NRM/NRA’s top leaders Joan Kategaya I asked where we were going, he only said: when they took power in January 1986 and was “Somewhere.” often considered as the number two after President Kategaya left home in the morning and later Museveni. returned with a taxi. We did all our preparations discreetly. Not even our neigbours were to know • From 1986 to 2001, he served in various about our departure. We picked our personal KATEGAYA capacities as a minister in Museveni’s governments. belongings and left the household furniture • During Museveni’s second term as elected and most of other items inside the house. We President (2001-2006), Kategaya fell out with the handed the house keys to our neighbours and President when he opposed moves to have the told them we would soon return. Constitution amended to remove presidential term limits. e headed to the Akamba bus station • In May 2003, he was dropped from his ministerial and boarded a bus position during a cabinet reshuffl e. From the to Kenya via Busia. time he was dropped from the cabinet, Kategaya At the border, an practised law with J.B. Byamugisha Advocates. Kategaya at immigration offi cial, • In December 2004, he participated in the Mbarara High who was rummaging formation of the Forum for Democratic Change School Junior through my belongings, noticed my wedding Wphoto and asked where my husband was. Just (FDC). Kategaya loved to dance. Here, he dances Secondary in 1960 as I was explaining that I had left my husband • Rejoined the NRM government in 2006 as First with businessman Gordon Wavamunno in Uganda, Kategaya appeared, forcing the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African and singer Bebe Cool in 2007 offi cer to ask if that was not the man she had Affairs, positions he held until his death in 2013. seen in the wedding album. I lied that the man she was seeing was my husband’s twin brother. We proceeded to Kenya. “When I asked where we were going, he only LIFE IN EXILE We arrived in Nairobi at 9:00am and found said: ‘Somewhere’” Akena p’Ojok waiting for us. We lived with him for some time, before we got our own fl at in Jamhuri Estate off Ngong Road. I also got a job STARTING LIFE TOGETHER was presided over by the Rev. Erica Sabiiti, with DT Dobie. One day, after we had been friends for some my godfather. We later hosted our guests at Once we settled, Kategaya went off to Dar- years, Kategaya told me that he wanted to what was then the National Teachers College es-Salaam to join his comrades in the struggle. start a family. I asked him some questions. Kyambogo, where the director and our family I stayed behind with our child and maid. For instance, I challenged him to tell me if he friend, Adonia Tiberondwa, offered us a free Kategaya tried as much as possible to keep in was sure that I was the one he wanted to settle hall. We had a lovely wedding. Wedding touch. down with. “What if I can’t have children? Will meetings to fundraise for the reception were not He phoned once in a while but our you still want to be with me?” I asked. He said common then, so we did not have any. However, conversations were short, for security reasons. he was ready to live with me. our friends and family offered time and money His visits were few and far between and only This was in the diffi cult 1970s, when political to ensure that the wedding went well. lasted a night or two. It was not easy and we instability was widespread. Kategaya seemed worried about each other a great deal. But he concerned about the future. He felt he needed THE TURBULENT 70S often encouraged me to be strong. to start a family early enough, just in case After our wedding, Kategaya started working as Whenever he came, he would pay a surprise things did not turn out well. He was very a lawyer for Ibingira, Mulenga and Company visit to my offi ce with presents like jewellery. We disturbed by the mysterious disappearance of Advocates Limited. I had also moved from used whatever little time we had together to talk the Minister of Justice, Benedicto Kiwanuka, Uganda Management Institute to the offi ce of about our future. He loved playing with Julius, at the hands of Idi Amin’s soldiers. After the Makerere University Academic Registrar, whom he fondly referred to as “Chief”. Sitting this incident, he said he did not want to die Bernard Onyango. We both moved into my fl at in his little chair and sucking away at his fi nger, childless. on Sir Apollo Kaggwa Road. This was our fi rst “Chief” Julius also enjoyed time with his dad. After he reaffi rmed his intention to settle home as a young couple. Such moments never lasted long, as Kategaya down with me, I agreed. Kategaya then asked The clandestine meetings continued in our would soon vanish. me to tell my parents about our intention to get new home. At the time we had acquired a car, After a couple of years in Nairobi, we joined married. When I did, they said I was too young a metallic grey Renault, on loan, with which he Kategaya in Dar-es-Salaam. There, we lived in and advised that I fi rst return to the UK and would drop and collect me from work. a large guesthouse called Deluxe Inn, with the complete my studies. However, I had already One day, Kategaya told me he was going to families of Kategaya’s comrades. It had been decided to start a family, so eventually, they Mbale for a court session. When he did not offered by the Tanzanian government. came round. return home in the evening, I got very worried. One day, soldiers came and arrested Yoweri Even then, they remained curious about At about midnight, he came in and went to Museveni, Kategaya, (Augustine) Ruzindana Kategaya. They wanted to know his background sleep. He told us the following day that he, and their colleagues in the struggle and took and the fact that we both came from religious together with his comrades, had proceeded to them to Okong Maximum Prison. They also family backgrounds helped matters. Gulu from Mbale for a recruitment exercise. bundled us and the rest of Kategaya’s comrades’ Our wedding was at St Francis Chapel, He said on their way back they had hit a families onto a police jeep and took us to the Makerere University, on July 15, 1972. It Eriya and Joan on their wedding day sheep, damaging the Renault’s radiator. They police station. IN PART 2 TOMORROW: Life on the move; Kategaya’s sister on growing up with him.