The Deputy Attorney General Mwesigwa Rukutana and Minister of State for Constitutional Affairs has said that his father registered him under different names in a bid to avoid computer hitches that would impact negatively on his education after repeating Primary Seven.
“I remember what they told us was that if you used the same names, the computer would chew the results and so my father went and enrolled me using my young brother’s names Mwesigwa Barati Rukutana,” the Minister said.
According to the Minister, as a 14-year old boy, his father changed the names from Francis Mugasha to Mwesigwa Rukutana, borrowing one name each from the father and brother, Mwesigwa Barati.
“I was admitted for senior one at Old Kampala and at that time (1973), I was only 14 years and my father was a poor man so he said to me: “you are still very young to go to Kampala and I don’t have money to afford a private school in Kampala.”
“He said you repeat so that you can get marks to take you to a nearby government school and I did adhere to the advice and I repeated,” he said.
“That time computerization had just been introduced and everybody who studied at that time will tell you that the advice was that when you repeat Primary Seven (P7) you would not use same names you used in a previous year,” the Minister said and named some of the people he studied with. “I remember Stanley Ampaire, he is a secondary teacher at Ruyonza Seed Secondary School, Rev Emmanuel Mujuni, church priest, Jackson Tugume, Fredrick Toroto, now a qualified primary teacher,” the Minister said.
He also named other P7 peers but from different schools and among them are Dan Mugarura Bakagyi, the Chairperson of Forum for Democratic Change party Electoral Commission and Stephen Tashobya, the Member of Parliament for Kajara County and Chairperson of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee in Parliament.
The Minister’s clarification follows a petition by a one Julius Twesigye Kyobwe of Kayonza, Rushenyi who, on September 11, wrote to the NRM Electoral Commission boss Dr Tanga Odoi accusing Mwesigwa Rukutana, the party’s aspiring candidate for Rushenyi County, of using academic documents that are not his.
In the letter Twesigye said that the Deputy Attorney General is actually called Francis Mugasha and not Mwesigwa Rukutana, a name Twesigye says belongs to someone who passed his exams but could not proceed with is education.
The petitioner now wants ‘Mwesigwa Rukutana’ to be blocked from contesting in the forthcoming parliamentary elections and according to Dr Odoi, the matter was being handled by relative party organs.
Rukutana’s full narrative regarding his name
I was born on November 15, 1959 at a place called Ruyonza village, Nyanka parish, Rubaare sub-county Ntungamo district but by then it was Bushenyi district.
In 1966, when I was seven years old, I started going to school at Ruyonza Church School, a school with only three classes and that is to say P.1, P.2 and P.3. The school had upper classes but with the help of other parents, my father suggested that we keep on being promoted to other upper classes. He also suggested the school should open up to P7 and indeed they did and my teacher was Raphael Mukwikwi, who I think was a Senior Four drop out.
I sat for Primary Living Examinations in 1972 but got a second grade like everybody that year, given that that was the first time the school was partaking in national exams. Naturally, all of us failed to get grade one but I was the best in grade two as I got 180 marks.
I was admitted for Senior One at Old Kampala (Secondary School) and at that time in 1973, I was only 14 years and my father was a poor man so he said to me “you are still very young to go to Kampala and I don’t have money to afford a private school in Kampala”.
He said you repeat so that you can get marks to take you to a nearby government school and I did adhere to the advice and I repeated and at that time computerization had just been introduced and everybody who studied at that time will tell you that when you repeated primary seven (P7) you would not use same names you used in the previous year.
And I remember what they told us was that if you used the same names, the computer would chew the results and so my father went and enrolled me using my young brother’s names, Mwesigwa Barati Rukutana. Actually, the Rukutana name belongs to our father.
My young brother Mwesigwa Barati never went to school at that time because my father could only afford to take one child to school. Mwesigwa Barati actually went to school much later but dropped out in Primary Four.
And so back to the point; I repeated and did PLE at that church school (Ruyonza) in 1973 and I did perform well given that this was the second time the school was sitting national exams. I performed better and became the best in Western Region with 257 marks out of 300.
The people I sat (exams) with whom I remember are Stanley Ampaire, he is a secondary teacher at Ruyonza Seed Secondary School, Rev. Emmanuel Mujuni, church priest, Jackson Tugume and Fredrick Toroto, who is now a qualified primary teacher.
Other contemporaries in primary seven although from different schools are Dan Mugarura Bakagyi, the current chairman of Forum for Democratic Change party Electoral Commission, Stephen Tashobya, the Member of Parliament for Kajara County and Chairman of the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee in Parliament.
So in 1974, I was admitted at Mbarara High School for Senior One on scholarship. For 1978-1979, I did study Advanced Level at Kigezi High while 1980-1983, I did study for a Bachelors Degree in Law at Makerere University.
In 1984, I enrolled for Law Development Centre and I did so well that the administration of LDC asked to retain me and I lectured there until I joined politics.
I don’t know where this whole thing of me using someone else’s papers is coming from but I remember I did explain to someone in Parliament in 1994 during the Constituent Assembly.
However, it is a waste of time by those who think they can dislodge me using such malicious propaganda.
