Remembering Onapito Ekomoloit

The life of a reporter, editor, lecturer, media proprietor, legislator, presidential press secretary and corporate guru

THE LAST WORD | Andrew M. Mwenda | On Friday, September 27, Ivan Okuda called me announcing the death of Onapito Ekomoloit. It was as shocking as it was surprising. I had talked to Onapito only a few days earlier about my plans to visit his ancestral home in Amuria, Teso region. Since he retired from being Corporate Affairs Director at Nile Breweries and became its Board Chairman, he had begun to take greater interest in his ancestral village of Amuria.

Okuda’s news left me bewildered. How can a whole Onapito die so quickly and suddenly? But I have always known that life is fragile and fleeting. In the last few years, I have lost people close to me in almost similar circumstances: a sudden car accident, a sudden loss of oxygen, a heart attack or a fatal stroke.

Yet I have failed to cope with these tragic news as they leave me lost and confused. Why is life so fragile? Why do some people die suddenly while others go through a protracted process of suffering? When asked how he wished to die, Julius Caesar answered: “A quick death.” Is that the best way to die?

I have known Onapito Ekomoloit since 1991. At the time, I was a high school student at Mbarara High School, and he, an undergraduate student of journalism at Makerere University. It was not a physical encounter but an intellectual one through Weekly Topic newspaper where he was a journalist.

At the time, Weekly Topic was the heartbeat of Uganda’s progressive journalism: crusading for democracy, human rights and accountability. I was immediately struck by his independence of mind, courage of spirit and his intellectual depth. I was immediately hooked and became a fan.

In July 1992, Weekly Topic newspaper suffered an earthquake. All its top editors and best reporters resigned. The editors included Wafula Oguttu, Charles Onyango-Obbo, Kevin Aliro, Richard Tebere, David Ouma and Jimmy Serugo. The resignation was caused by attempts by the owners, to wit Jaberi Bidandi Ssali, Kintu Musoke and Kirunda Kivejinja, to control editorial policy in favour of the government. The three proprietors had all become ministers in the government of President Yoweri Museveni. Their actions were therefore understandable. But the editors were not willing to compromise the editorial independence of the newspaper at the altar of political convenience.

It turned out that among the journalists who resigned in protest was Onapito leading the pack alongside Dismas Nkunda, Steven Shalita, Kyazze Simwogerere (the latter two still students of journalism at MUK), Linda Nabusayi and others. It was a revolutionary act as the best and most independent journalistic talent now launched their own newspaper, The monitor. By this act of courage, the progressive initiative in journalism shifted from Weekly Topic to The Monitor and was to mark the eventual demise of that once great newspaper. As a young and passionate student, I saw this as an act of revolutinary courage.

The upheaval at Weekly Topic and the launch of The Monitor found me in Kampala. I had come to town from Busoga College Mwiri for medical treatment. I rushed to buy the first copy of this new newspaper on the stands having come out on the very day I was going back to school. From then, henceforth, The Monitor became my favourite and Onapito had an oversized role in it. He was both a reporter and editor at The Monitor.

By the time I joined Makerere in October 1993, Ona, as we fondly called him, had finished his journalism studies with flying colours. And the university had retained him as a lecturer and teaching assistant. The first week I went to class, Onapito was my teacher. I made it my objective to befriend him. My first news article to ever get published was a class assignment he gave me. And he was also its editor. It was published in The Monitor on Friday January 22, 1994. From then began a friendship that lasted 31 years till his untimely death on September 27, 2024.

While still in my first year, Onapito won a Fulbright scholarship and left for the United States to study a masters in journalism for two years. When he returned, he went back to The Monitor as editor and to Makerere as lecturer. Later he was to lead a revolt at The Monitor and went to form a new newspaper, The Crusader, to which be became editor in chief. It was easy to notice the fire that burned inside this man – he was intensely public spirited. In 2001, he ran and won a parliamentary seat. Once in the house, he worked with Mugisha Muntu to move a motion to stop MPs being ministers. The motion did not succeed. But Onapito was never to give up.

His time in parliament transformed Onapito from an idealist to a real pragmatist. He was able to learn that politics is about practical matters, but idealistic dreams. That change comes from working within a system, rarely by fighting it from outside. In the 2006 elections, he lost his parliamentary seat.

A previous critic of President Yoweri Museveni, Onapito surprised many people when he bounced back as press secretary to the president. Yet I felt at the time he was the right man to hold the job given his immense experience in journalism as a lecturer, editor and reporter. And if we add his experience as a politician, I felt Museveni had the right man.

His time at State House transformed Onapito in extraordinary ways. He was a keen observer of power and how it works. He took his lessons, handled his job with tact and skill, and requested the president to allow him resign when he wanted to change careers.

He left State House with a clean record. Although he loved working for the president, I felt Onapito got frustrated with Museveni’s personal inability to work with professional talent in the field of media. Yet not once in my our many discussions did he ever criticize the president or talk negatively about the things he observed while at State House.

Instead he became an ardent spokesperson of the president, the First Lady and Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba. He did this on The Hot Seat, a popular radio talk show I host on KFM on Fridays. Onapito was always the realist on the Friday show, hosting a panel of journalists to discuss the major events of the week. On the show, he always rejected idealism and insisted on using cold logic to analyse national issues.

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amwenda@ugindependent.co.ug