Muhakanizi loved independent media 

Keith Muhakanizi, whose death was announced on April 13, was many things to so many people in his 64 years on earth.

He was a distinguished economist, and his career ended when he was still permanent secretary of the Office of the Prime Minister. He died in a hospital in Milan, Italy, where he was treated for cancer.

At 64, Muhakanizi was a former permanent secretary and secretary to the Treasury in the ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development (MOFPED). He was undeniably an influential economist and policy adviser on various boards, and his legacy in the government realm dates back more than three decades.

In a press statement, the Finance minister, Matia Kasaija, said that the country lost a gallant son who leaves a gigantic legacy as one of the trailblazers of Uganda’s modern economy.

As a budding economist, Muhakanizi started his career in the then ministry of Planning and Economic Development. The two ministries were later merged to create the current MOFPED. He rose through the ranks as an excellent performer and attained the rank of secretary to the Treasury.

“He made an enormous contribution to revamping, restructuring and correcting economic distortions of the late 1970s under Idi Amin’s regime, to restore macroeconomic stability and sustain economic growth,” Kasaija said in the Monday statement.

Muhakanizi spearheaded several reforms both in economic and public financial management that have fostered economic growth, attracted investment and restored fiscal discipline, among others.

Kasaija said that the ministry remains indebted to him for his enormous contribution to the growth of the economy. By press time, a tentative burial had not been announced by the interment committee chaired by the permanent secretary in the Office of the President, Hajji Yunus Kakande. He will be accorded a state burial.

“A TRUE STATESMAN”

When the news of his death trickled in, social media was awash with moving eulogies of Muhakanizi. The Observer’s advertising account manager, Gaston Atusiimire, was dumbfounded by the passing of a friend whose love for the media was unmatched.

“It’s a sad moment. He was a true statesman. I have known Muhakanizi since 2004 for advertising business. He would welcome anyone regardless of the position or tribe,” Atusiimire said.

He said that even when he skipped appointments due to his tight schedule, Muhakanizi would call back to apologize. In today’s advertising space, most decision-making public officials are fond of playing cat-and-mouse games with advertising managers—but not Muhakanizi.

Atusiimire said that the seasoned economist hardly delegated his media-related engagements.

“I don’t know if it was favour or luck, but Muhakanizi loved The Observer. When he could not help, he would gladly refer you to someone and follow up with a phone call before you reached the person. He would, in turn, ask you to come back in case you were not satisfied with the service. A few permanent secretaries have such time for advertising managers,” he said.

In his more-than-25-year career in advertising, Atusiimire’s most memorable moment was when he convinced Muhakanizi to advertise with The Observer. The ministry then advertised its quarterly releases to various local governments. This was after endless frustrations orchestrated by the former head of a public media house.

“I vividly recall that day when the media boss pitched to the Finance ministry to channel all the releases through his institution for better mileage. Instead, Muhakanizi convened a meeting and invited advertising managers from other media houses. I was invited too. He openly told this media boss that it is important to share business with other private media entities that are taxpayers too and need government support through advertorials. He advised the media boss to, instead, lobby for an increment of the finance budget to accommodate his sister local papers,” Atusiimire recalled.

“To our surprise, Muhakanizi stood up and gave a firm handshake to the media boss after reaching a consensus, and we all left with smiles. To date, The Observer has never missed publishing the quarterly releases, and I can’t thank the Finance ministry enough for entrusting us even after Muhakanizi joined the Office of the Prime Minister,” he said.

Whereas some people labeled Muhakanizi an arrogant man, Atusiimire said: “Whoever says the truth, people often label them arrogant.”

The former head of communications at OPM, Julius Mucunguzi, described Muhakanizi as a rare person who paid attention to seemingly basic etiquette issues, while at the same time demanding results from his staff.

“Dysfunction of systems in institutions begins when basic issues are ignored. Keith told us that, for example, when you have toilets in public offices without toilet paper and public officers who leave dirty and used cups as well as yellow banana peelings on tables they have used for meetings, it is unlikely that such people will attend to important matters of service delivery and pay attention to the needs of citizens,” Mucunguzi wrote on Twitter.

He added: “Keith walked into people’s offices and found piles and piles of scattered and disorganized paperwork and directed a general cleanup. If you can’t organize your files, he said, there is no way you will find useful information to inform your decision-making. Simple acts with profound meaning and impact.”

He is optimistic that the seeds Muhakanizi planted at the Finance ministry and OPM will forever bear fruit.

“KEITH HAD A CRUDE SENSE OF HUMOR”

Former Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana had planned a trip to Milan to check on Muhakanizi after efforts to check on him, as he always did almost every morning, had failed for nearly three weeks.

“I had received news that he was in the ICU, but was steadily improving. We booked a flight to Milan for April 17, hoping that by the time we arrive, he will be in a position to talk to us,” Rukutana said in his eulogy.

“Keith is not any other brother or friend. He is part of me. His demise takes away a big portion of who I am. Having known each other at Makerere in the early 80s through a mutual friend, the late Yason Mpungye.”

Rukutana recalled a meeting with Muhakanizi and business mogul Sudhir Ruparelia, which went on till the wee hours of the morning at the Speke hotel over bottles of Red Label mixed with hot water. He said that meeting reconciled him with his political opponents and ushered him into the mainstream of the NRM.

This meeting followed his political turmoil in Ntungamo, which comprised Ruzindana Vs. Kamwesiga, Karazaarwe Vs. Kacooboye, Karazaarwe Vs. Buriiku, Rukutana Vs. Kazoora divides, when he [Rukutana] and his brothers Bob Kabonero, Jim, and Susan Muhwezi, the First Family, and the NRM as a party, were strenuous protagonists.

“As fate would have it, when the reconciliation catapulted me into mainstream politics, I was to find myself in the ministry of Finance as a state minister, where Keith was a director of budget. Nothing cemented our brotherhood more than his intellectualism, outspokenness, firmness in thought and deed, and crude sense of humour. Most people, including me at first, thought Keith was arrogant and defiant because of these qualities. Once he thought he was right, he could dare anyone,” Rukutana said.

In his 30 years of political life, Muhakanizi passes as the only government official that Rukutana ever saw, several times, telling President Museveni to his face; “Your Excellency, we cannot do that”! Or even interrupting him mid-speech!!

“Yet, in Keith lay a humble, obedient, listening, and advisable civil servant. As a minister, I thought I was his boss. I always joked with him that I could dismiss him, to which he always retorted that he would live to see who would leave the ministry before the other! When, after five years, I was transferred to the ministry of Gender, he was so sad. But the following morning, he called me so early and, with his characteristic laughter, asked me; “You fool, who of the two of us has left the ministry first”? I retorted that I had voluntarily left them because I was tired of working with ‘stupid’ people.”

Such and more were the duo’s daily witty and humorous greetings. One time in 2001, when Rukutana had just been appointed a minister, Muhakanizi found him shivering on his desk with malaria.

Muhakanizi asked what the problem was. “Surprisingly, the ‘fool’ burst out laughing at me. “Malaria, a minister suffering from malaria?” That’s backwardness; malaria is like jiggers, a modern person should never contract malaria”!”

Another crude humor of the two friends came when Muhakanizi was transferred to the OPM. For Rukutana, who was no longer a minister, he was always reminding him that he lost power.

“I took my revenge by calling to tell him that he too had lost power. One time, he wrote a letter rebuking and warning a driver who had knocked a student’s case, or something of the sort. With Ben Kavuya, we asked him how, a person who always wrote to the President of the World Bank and the IMF, could stoop so low as to write a long letter condemning a driver who had spilled mandazi. We laughed so heartily about it,” Rukutana said.

He added: “But his revenge never took long. I had written a letter to the Attorney General (AG) over a case I am handling. The AG referred the letter to PS/OPM for a response. Keith called me the following morning and said; “You fool, you said I had lost power; come and sign the letter yourself.”

All the hearty laughter is no more. Rukutana is saddened that the Muhakanizi has joined Chris Kassami and Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile—key architects of the revival of Uganda’s economy.

BACKGROUND

• Born in 1959 to Rev Kosia Kajwengye and Zeridah Kajwengye, both deceased.

• He studied at Ntare School for secondary education.

• He went to Makerere University and obtained a Bachelor of Commerce and later a master’s degree in Development Economics from Williams College in Massachusetts, USA.

• He once served as Director of Economic Affairs, Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Director of Budget, and Permanent Secretary/Secretary to the Treasury, all in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development.

• He served on several boards; National Housing and Construction Company, the Bank of Uganda, the East African Development Bank, the Housing Finance Bank, the Economic Policy Research Center, and the Uganda Revenue Authority.

• Until his death, he was the permanent secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.

nangonzi@observer.ug