Last Updated on: 1st October 2023, 05:42 pm
Lira | After President Yoweri Museveni appointed the then newly converted Lira-based UPC strongman Alex Abura Lolo Kawa as an ambassador, pending deployment on March 6, 2011, great news turned sour.
Museveni, in his letter referenced PO/23 was titled: ‘Appointment of Mssrs Julius Peter Moto and Alex Abura Lolo Kawa as Deputy Ambassadors.’
To put the letter into action, the then-acting Principal Private Secretary (PPS) to the President Grace Akello generated a letter instructing John Mitala, the Head of Public Service who also doubled as the Secretary to the Cabinet to expedite the formalities.
“….I write to inform you that HE the President has appointed Messrs Moto and Kawa as Deputy Ambassadors. He requests that you formalise this appointment in line with the governing procedures; and give them duty stations…,” reads in part Grace Akello’s letter.
In the letter dated March 6, 2011, Grace Akello who now heads Uganda’s Mission in India also attached copies of the duo’s curriculum vitae for ease by the then Head of Public Service/Secretary to the Cabinet, John Mitala.
Ambassador Julius Moto’s appointment was successfully concluded and he began his diplomatic duties as head of Mission in South Africa, and Uganda’s High Commissioner to London.
Ambassador Moto would serve until the first quarter of 2022 when his contract was not renewed under unclear circumstances.
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To date, Ambassador Lolo agonises: “…I have neither been deployed nor has my appointment been rescinded. I made several efforts to meet and petition the President over this matter to no avail….”
What could have gone wrong?
Asked for a comment, Lolo has no kind words for the State for arousing false hope and subjecting him to what he calls “immense embarrassment and stress” that almost made him mad.
“Indeed, I have been subjected to such a level of agony that is comparable to the proverbial Job in the Old Testament {Bible}…,” he lamented, adding that the false appointment has rendered me permanently unemployable.
“…to be appointed and marooned at the same time is probably only better than just being killed, sometimes I feel it could have been better for me not to live to see that very date I was offered such a botched appointment…,” Lolo laments.
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In a rather sarcastic tone, following the above hiccups, Lolo, 61, who hails from Olao-Ipii Cell, Banya Ward, Amac Town Council in Erute South constituency is very appreciative of President Museveni and his government for choosing to treat him so.
“…I could not run a normal life; I could not enjoy the privilege of public life. I have all along been the subject of ostracism and ridicule…I feel like an octogenarian or even a nonagenarian…,” Lolo says with his rattling diction.
As expected, many people from Lango have manufactured conspiracy theories as to why Lolo’s appointment did not see the light of the day, aware that presidential appointments are always executed promptly.
A section of people blamed it on the chronic disease infamously referred to as the Pull Him Down (PHD) syndrome which has become the trademark in the Lango.
There are a group of people especially politicians who feel threatened or jealous seeing another potential heavyweight from the sub-region with nine districts and one city rising to take any juicy position.
Other sources accuse Lolo of refusing to share some millions with “kingmakers” who later turned around and soiled his CV, hence frustrating the whole appointment process.
In 2017, Lolo blamed the then Lands Minister Sam Engola for sabotaging his deployment. According to Lolo, Engola told ‘powers that be’ that he was ‘unfit for diplomatic duties’.
Further, Kawa started grassing after some overzealous and jealous officials from Dokolo district local government dismissed him unlawfully from the job he was holding as Principal Personnel Officer.
He acted swiftly and dragged Dokolo district to the Court which in 2019 ruled in his favour and ordered the district to pay him shs400m as costs and damages for the unlawful termination of his services.
An ambassador by plan, Lolo is still hopeful that another opportunity will present itself as he meets President Yoweri Museveni for the eighth time to demand an answer about what really went wrong.
He holds an Executive Master of Business Administration from ESAMI, a Post Graduate Diploma in Public Administration obtained from Uganda Management Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Works and Social Administration from Makerere University in 1989.