KABALE: Security minister Maj Gen Jim Muhwezi has said he owes his life to Hope Kivengere who helped him to escape from Uganda after being charged alongside Gen David Tinyefuza for being rebel collaborators in 1981.
Speaking at Kivengere’s burial in Kabale Municipality on Saturday, Gen Muhwezi said he escaped from Uganda during the Obote II regime while putting on Kivengere’s dress and wig.
“After escaping from the prison, I went to Hope Kivengere’s house in Kampala where she gave me her dresses and wig for my head and that is how I managed to beat the security personnel that were deployed there. I am what I am because of Ms Hope Kivengere because by that time I had not had any child,” he recalled.
Ms Kivengere, who worked as the President’s press secretary from 1986 until her retirement in 2001, died early this week.
In his condolence message read at her burial, President Museveni also hailed Kivengere’s role in the liberation struggle.
“Hope joined the struggle to liberate this country quite early in her life. She began the struggle when she was still an undergraduate student at Makerere University during Obote II [regime],” Mr Museveni said in a message read by Dr Ruhakana Rugunda.
“She helped some of the undergraduate students who had earlier joined the struggle and faced great danger from the then government agents. She helped the young freedom fighters to escape and hence saved their lives from those who were after their blood,” he added.
Ms Kivengere worked as Uganda’s representative on the COMESA Committee of Elders, a nine-member committee with representatives from nine COMESA member countries.
Between 2016 and 2017, she worked with Intergovernmental Authority on Development. Previously, she worked with AU peacekeeping missions in Sudan and in Somalia.
In 2018, she was selected by COMESA to head its team to observe Egypt’s presidential elections which president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi won to retain his seat.