Former Uganda ICT minister Aggrey Awori dies at 82

Kampala. Former Uganda presidential candidate and ex-ICT minister, Aggrey Awori, has passed away.

The Ugandan politician, who is also brother to former Kenyan vice President Moody Awori, died Monday afternoon aged 82. The news was confirmed by his wife Thelma, as well as his close friend, Mr Peter Oguttu.

Mr Oguttu told the Daily Monitor that Mr Awori passed away at a private hospital in Naalya, Kampala.

"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," he said.

Asked what could have killed Awori, Mr Oguttu said: "You know what's currently going on in the country, but he's been having pressure and other diseases as well."

Challenged Museveni

The late Awori served as a Member of Parliament for many years before making history in 2001 when he dared to vie for the presidency against President Yoweri Museveni, and finished third.

He served as MP for Samia Bugwe in Uganda, before being appointed ICT Cabinet Minister by Museveni where he served from February 16, 2009 to May 27, 2011.

His brother Moody was Kenya’s longest serving assistant minister before he was appointed vice-president. Before that, he served as Funyula MP for 25 years. 

Moody and Aggrey Awori are the sons of Canon Awori, a pioneer priest of the Anglican Church in East Africa who died in 1971, and Ms Mariamu Odongo Awori, a nurse and community teacher. 

Their sister is Dr Mary Okello, who was Kenya’s first woman bank manager and is the founder of the Makini group of schools.

Education

Aggrey Awori attended Nabumali High School in Mbale District and King's College Budo, in Wakiso District, both in Uganda. While at Kings College Budo (1959 to 1961), Aggrey was selected among a few others for elite military officers training at Sandhurst Military College in the United Kingdom. His father Canon Awori, however, rejected the idea of his talented son joining the military. From 1961 to 1965, he studied at Harvard University on a scholarship. The first year he took nuclear physics, but then switched over to political economics.
 
While at Harvard, Aggrey became the first person in heptagonal track history to win three events - the long jump, high hurdles, and 60-yard dash, tying the heps record in the hurdles and setting the mark in the dash. He also ran on the victorious mile relay team that tied the heptagonal record.

By the time he graduated from Harvard, Awori held three outdoor and five indoor school records. He also represented Uganda in the 110 metres hurdles at the 1960 Summer Olympics and the 1964 Summer Olympics, but failed to win any medals.

Awori had a Master of Arts in economics from Syracuse University in the US.

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 during Amin's first coup attempt he didn't broadcast a speech Amin gave, lying to him by saying that they were live on air. He went into political exile in 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.

Outspoken 

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 was the Minister for Information & Communications Technology in the Cabinet of Uganda from 16 February 2009 to May 27, 2011. In the cabinet reshuffle of May 27, 2011, he was dropped from the cabinet and replaced by Ruhakana Rugunda.

He was married to Thelma Awori, who worked as Director for Africa at the United Nations Development Programme. Together they are the parents of six adult children.