Ernest Kakwano, a former prominent member of the external wing of the National Resistance Army (NRA) which ushered President Museveni into power in 1986, has died. Kakwano, who also served as head of Coffee Marketing Board in the late 1980s, passed away this Easter Sunday.
“This morning, I received a call informing me of the passing of a dear friend, hero and committed member of the NRA/M External Wing, Comrade Kakwano Kakwano,” said retired Lt Gen Henry Tumukunde.
“Kakwano and his wife Alice were part of the support system that sustained the struggle both in Uganda and in exile,” he added.
“The Kakwano’s, alongside several other NRA External Wing members, provided unwavering support to many injured NRA combatants turned refugees including myself and others, in every possible manner, often in very difficult and risky circumstances.”
The family has not yet revealed the businessman’s cause of death.
Kakwano came from a humble background and studied economics at University College Nairobi. He then began his career in financial positions in the mining and automobile export industries. After his great success in setting up a Mercedes and Nissan dealership in Uganda, Kakwano was hired by the Ugandan government in 1974 to manage the country’s entire automotive trade, including everything from buses and motorcycles to spare parts and tires.
In 1981, war broke out in Uganda and Kakwano and his family were forced into exile in Nairobi, Kenya, where they founded a Japanese car company. While there, Kakwano and his wife Alice contributed greatly to the war effort in Uganda and sided with the NRA to restore the current system of democratic parliamentary government.
In 1986, when the war ended and the Ugandan government was restored, Kakwano and his family returned home. He and his wife were named war heroes, and the new government assigned Kakwano to work alongside other World Bank and IMF economists to study and advise the government on reviving the economy.
Kakwano’s job was in particular to head the country’s main export earner, the Uganda Coffee and Marketing Board. Their task was to turn the tide, break up the state monopoly on the coffee trade and hand over the coffee value chain to the private sector. He did it successfully.
Clash with Kaijuka
In a recent article, government spokesman Ofwono Opondo recalled that a then senior trade minister, who called himself Sir Rich (Richard Kaijuka), wrote to Prime Minister George Cosmas Adyebo (RIP) in 1993 asking for permission and money to enter Travel abroad, but Adyebo refused.
Furious, Sir Rich wrote on the back of Adyebo’s letter, informing him that he (Adyebo) did not “understand” the “importance” of the external trip. Sir Rich asked the General Manager of the Coffee Marketing Board (CMB), Ernest Kakwano, for funds, which Kakwano refused and Sir Rich quickly fired him for “insubordination”.
When the President asked Sir Rich to go to Parliament and apologize for his arbitrary actions, he refused. Museveni then ordered then Deputy Prime Minister Kategaya to inform Parliament, in Sir Rich’s presence and probably in humiliation, that Sir Rich did not have the power to sack a managing director of a government company.
After his contracts with government expired. , Kakwano founded a raw materials export company with his son Edgar.Through that endeavour, Kakwano quickly discovered that the East Africa industry had a major supply chain issue, as drought conditions meant local farmers were not able to keep up with demand for grains.
In attempting to solve this challenge and find new suppliers, Kakwano discovered the World Food Bank which he would later serve as a member of the board of advisors.
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