Mary Karooro Okurut: A myriad of blessings

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OPINION

By Anthony K. Agripa

“Beitu noogira ngu naaba ariwe?” she’d ask, (Do you think he is himself?” And that was Mary Karooro Okurut.

She was determined to see the silver lining, or they’d be no cloud in the first place. A woman who saw good in everybody, no matter what level of pariah they were, and had a kind explanation for everything a person may be experiencing. An optimistic realist, she lived her life with a quiet grace, a divine serenity and enviable all-round goodness.

Many a mother lean towards a favourite child, but the ‘mother hen’, as she was fondly called by her children, wasn’t one of these. Her heart was departmentalised to have a place for each and every one of her many children, with space for the good, the seemingly bad, and the prodigals, where she loved each one in their own way. She brought out the best in everyone.

In the 80’s and 90’s, her life was a dedication to education, serving first as a literature lecturer at Makerere University, and later working with the Education Service Commission. A gifted novelist, playwright and poet, her literary works are too numerous, the earliest being her weekly article in The New Vision, “The Way I see It,” where she navigated a wide range of social, political and economic phenomena, later starting up FEMRITE, a writing organization where female writers could showcase their literary works.

With time she took on more projects, especially involving women and the girl child, fistula, female genital mutilation, cross generational sex, and her books became her advocacy forum to bring attention to topics that were considered taboo to talk about. The Invisible Weevil addressed the AIDS scourge, Child of a Delegate addressed prostitution, and many others.

And, having noticed her passion about everything literal, the then vice-president Ms. Specioza Kazibwe, and later President Museveni put her on a platform that propelled her to speak openly and passionately about a government that she loved so truly and so deeply: she became press secretary in both offices consecutively.

To say she loved the NRM government and its founder and president would be a language so mild that even she wouldn’t appreciate the belittlement.

A born politician, her thrust onto the political arena started in 1994, when she campaigned for the position of Women’s delegate in the Constituency Assembly of Uganda. She did not win this one, but she had arrived. She had come, she had seen- she was yet to conquer. Her defeat did not faze her, and she continued to promote and advocate for NRM, dwelling on its progressional efforts, especially of its patron, the president of Uganda.

Then came 1999, and the referendum happened. It was done. NRM was the country, and the country was NRM. And now she could shine; passionately, loudly, proudly.

The era of “The Yellow Girls” set in, and she was one of the yellowest. Women in government whose loyalty was unquestionable and unwavering. And she was rewarded for it. She contested in the 2004 bi-election in Bushenyi District, and won. She had now conquered. She was ultimately rewarded over the years as Minister of General Duties in the Office of the Prime Minister, Minister of Security, and Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development.

Her legacy. It’s hard to legate a woman who encompassed so much, envisioned so much and accomplished so much. Her role model was Oprah Winfrey, and she always joked that she wasn’t just her relative in weight issues, but also in heart. It is here that she thrived the most; in her philanthropy, her kindness, her generosity, her goodness. Even when everything fell apart all around her, she was always trying to put it back together, to make it stand again.

In a country where the government was slowly losing the popular vote, she wasn’t shaken in defending and justifying its actions. To the very end, she thanked the president and the first lady, and they too reciprocated that love by visiting her at Nakasero Hospital and sending her off in the vibrant style that so characterised her life.

1 Corinthians 9:24- “Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.” You fought well and you finished well. May the Lord grant you eternal rest in a paradise you so effortlessly deserve.

The writer is the Public Relations Officer Ministry of Local Government