{UAH} A RECOGNITION OF A GOOD MAN IN UGANDA

Friends

 

We have spent so many days and hours going after the killers and rapists we have built in our country. We have some very good men and I am here today to raise a glass for a good man in Uganda. And the name I am raising a glass for today is a one of Lawrence Katabaazi. Lawrence Katabaazi joined Uganda Prison Services in about Obote one government, he continues as well under Iddi Amin government where he ended up getting a rank of an Assistant Commissioner of Prisons in Western Uganda. Katabaazi was in charge of Fort Portal prisons and he was as well an in charge of Mubuku Prisons farm.  To those that do not know where Mubuku farm is we are talking near The Hima Cement industry so we are way deep in Western Uganda. As NRA was fighting the elected government, they had a habit of recruiting local officials in the taken areas to run a some sort of governance, and Lawrence Katabaazi became a powerful man in the area because he was senior among those in area.

 

Lawrence picked my interest because when NRA came to power it invited all those that have been serving and promoted them abruptly. Lawrence Katabaazi was requested to come to Kampala and work as deputy Commissioner of prisons and he turned down the offer.  To me that is the Ugandan I look for.  And his argument was very simple, thank you for the promotion but there are Ugandans that have served in prisons way longer than myself and they poses a  much higher education with experience that fit the promotion, I simply don’t fit it. To me that was a very high calling to see it coming out of a Ugandan and I stand with a glass to recognize that.  Because Katabaazi had worked with NRM for a very long time during the war, they agreed that he forgets the promotion, but they asked him to be transferred to Kampala prison headquarters, a request he lastly accepted.  He was handed an office and he started to work in Kampala but in charge of some section of  Luzira.

 

At this point of my writing, I am introducing a name of a man called Jim Muhwezi Katugugu, this Jim becomes interesting because he was at a time an in charge of ISO. As an in charge of ISO Muhweezi had all sorts of access to public funds to run the organization, but Muhwezi as well used that position to take money out of the organization and siphon it to outside banks. Because the funds were in Uganda shillings, he had to change it to United States Dollars to be accepted into foreign banks, and to do that he needed a steady supply of dollars to exchange it with. At this point we will throw in another name, a one Dr. Sudhir Ruparelia, this Sudhir is a major business conglomerate in Uganda, who owns as well a forex bureau services in the country. He became the perfect carrier of cash of Muhwezi. So this was very simply put this way, Muhwezi gets a load of Uganda shillings hand it to Sudhir, and Sudhir ships it out of the country to a foreign bank account of Muhwezi.

 

Since there is always a bad day, that day arrived Sudhir became arrested into Entebbe trying to fly out with a load of United States dollars. Police arrested him and handed him to a Uganda court which sent him to Luzira. Phone calls started to go off the hook for Sudhir simply cannot be arrested. But here he was in Luzira. As Lawrence Katabaazi was in his office, a phone call came in instructing him to go to Luzira and direct the release of Sudhir. Katabaazi says, I am a prisons officer to keep convicts and suspects in prison not to release them so I cannot do that. Sudhir was sent to Luzira by a judge, it is the judge to release him, if you walk into my office with a judge’s order to release him I will gladly do so. Better yet go to Uganda Police which is alleging the crimes, if they with draw them I will hand Sudhir to you even faster. Sudhir was not released. The next day the phone of Katabaazi rang again and it directed him to again go to Luzira and release Sudhir. This time the tone on the phone was plugged with a sentence of “The instructions of releasing Sudhir are from the top” There was no name of whom at top that directs the release but the sentence was used.

 

Lawrence Katabaazi responded very simply, I have heard you let me work on it. He actually picked up a car and drove to his house, packed all belongings to the prisons department, and took them to his office. He came back to his house and packed all his belongings and went back to Rukungiri where he is still sitting to today. Katabaazi actually fired himself for he refused to obey the order from above. To when I heard from those that talk to him, Katabaazi does not talk politics and he does not talk about NRM or the government of Uganda, but when he was pushed by a friend one day to explain why he refused to release only one-man from Luzira, he simply said “I do not do that shit in my life”

 

Ladies and gentlemen let us all raise a glass for a Lawrence Katabaazi this Sunday morning. To a good man !!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

EM

On the 49^th Parallel          

 

            Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
           Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"