Confirmed: Kirunda Kivejinja dead

Second deputy Prime Minister Ali Kirunda Kivejinja has died.

Kivejinja passed on at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala where he had been hospitalized for weeks.

He was aged 85.

Social media reports have in recent weeks claimed he was dead only for government and his NRM party to refute the reports.

But family members have now confirmed the elderly minister has breathed his last at Mulago.

The office of the NRM national chairman described the death of Kivejinja as a tragedy.

“With extreme sorrow we have learnt of the death of the 2^nd Deputy Prime Minister, Al Hajji Ali Kirunda Kivejinja, who has passed on today Saturday December 19, 2020,” a statement from the NRM national chairman’s office read in part.

“It is a very tragic development to lose Mzee Kivejinja who has been a pillar in the NRM Government, Busoga and Uganda at large and a great and historical friend of the NRM National Chairman and Head-Of-State, Gen. Yoweri Museveni.”

The office added: “We thank all those who have been there for Mzee Kivejinja during his time of illness. Allah’s will supersedes all. May Mzee Kivejinja’s soul rest in eternal peace! Innalillahi wa innalillahi rojiun!”

QUICK PROFILE

• Born: 12 June 1935
• Studied at the Kibuli Junior School and Busoga College Mwiri
• Undertook a pre-university course at Madras Christian College
• Graduated with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) Degree in Zoology at Delhi University on a Government of India scholarship
• Served as treasurer of the African Students Association
• Mobilised for the Uganda People’s Congress in 1960s
• He has served in various positions in government, including  Minister of Relief and Social Rehabilitation, Minister of Internal Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister of Uganda and Minister for East African Affairs.