The Chief of Defense Forces, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has said that the fallen senior economist, Ernest Kakwano, sneaked him and his siblings into exile in 1981.
Gen. Muhoozi, while paying his last respects to the deceased on Thursday, April 4, 2024, at St. John’s Church Entebbe, acknowledged Kakwano as an unsung NRA hero who served his nation diligently.
Gen. Kainerugaba told mourners that he and his sister Natasha were unexpectedly driven by Mrs. Alice Kakwano, now the widow of Ernest Kakwano, to the border of Kenya and Uganda instead of their usual route to school in Kabale.
“Approaching the Kenya-Uganda border, Mrs. Kakwano instructed Natasha and me to identify ourselves as her children if asked, a gesture that would secure our safe passage and ultimately freedom,” CDF Kainerugaba narrated.
Born on September 10, 1944, Kakwano died on Sunday, March 31, and will be laid to rest on Friday, April 5, at his ancestral home in Muko-Rukozi, Kashari County, in Mbarara District.
WHO WAS ERNEST KAKWANO?
The late Kakwano 80, was widely recognized, specifically for his covert operations on behalf of President Yoweri Museveni during the NRA’s struggle for liberation.
Kakwano studied economics at the then-University College in Nairobi and began his career with finance posts in the mining and car export industries. He started his career as an assistant accountant in 1966–1969 at Kilembe Copper Mines in Kasese.
From 1971 to 1973, he served as the General Manager of DT Dobie Uganda Mercedes Agency and then General Manager at Uganda Motors Ltd. from 1973 to 1980.
He later joined the NRA external wing in Nairobi, which was led by Yusuf Lule, following the launch of the Liberation Army.
In 1986, he and his family returned home, where he and his wife Alice were named war heroes.
The NRA government later contracted him to work alongside other economists at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to study and advise the government on ways to revive the economy.
In 1991, the Uganda Coffee Development Authority (UCDA) was founded following the passing of the UCDA Bill by the National Resistance Council and the presidential assent to the UCDA Statute of July 12, 1991 (amended in 1994). Kakwano became the founding managing director of UCDA and supervisor of the liberalization of the coffee trade in Uganda.
