{"id":11209,"date":"2014-04-09T08:36:33","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T08:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kfm.co.ug\/?p=11209"},"modified":"2014-04-09T11:57:45","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T11:57:45","slug":"parliament-mourns-okurut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/parliament-mourns-okurut\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliament mourns Okurut"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Speaker
Speaker Rebecca Kadaga comforts Gender minister Mary Karooro Okurut at Parliament yesterday. This was during a special session to honour the minister\u2019s late husband Stanislaus Okurut. PHOTO BY GEOFFREY SSERUYANGE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a sombre moment in Parliament yesterday as MPs paid tribute to the late former minister Stanislaus Okurut, whom they described as a peace crusader, true patriot and a honest man, who sacrificed his life to restore peace in Teso region.<\/p>\n

The late Okurut, husband of the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Mary Karooro Okurut, who succumbed to heart failure at the weekend at his home in Ntinda, led a government delegation to go and negotiate with the rebels of the Uganda People\u2019s Army in a mission where he was captured.<\/p>\n

The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, who presided over yesterday\u2019s session, told Parliament in her opening remarks that when she had just joined Parliament, the late Okurut was one of the senior people that served under the Legislative Council (Legico) that mentored her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was selfless, sociable and held the people of Teso at close heart.
\nHe also played a big role in the pacification of Teso region,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister, Mr Amama Mbabazi, yesterday moved a motion for a resolution of Parliament to pay tribute to the late Okurut, which was overwhelmingly supported by MPs.<\/p>\n

He talked of the late as one who lived a distinctive life with an illustrious political career as a member of the Legico, Minister of Works and Transport in the post-colonial times and minister of Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was tasked to negotiate with the rebels of the Uganda People\u2019s Army where he and his colleagues were very active. He continued to pursue peace as a peace builder and championed the amnesty law. He also revived the Chinese offer for the Namboole Stadium,\u201d said the premier.<\/p>\n

Being one of the few surviving legislators that served in the legico before Uganda attained its independence; the late was hailed for his role in the post independent era and one that lived a humble life.<\/p>\n

Mr Jimmy Akena Obote (Lira Municipality) said the late gave Uganda a clear roadmap to follow towards independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had no role models and were pioneers that time but when you read about their contributions in the Hansards, they were an amazing people,\u201d he said.
\nThe Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Wafula Oguttu hailed the late as a very objective and non-parochial statesman and a true democrat.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou would never tell which party he belonged to. The lesson is how are we living our lives and what contribution are we making to the country?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

mnalugo@ug.nationmedia.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

SOURCE: monitor.co.ug<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was a sombre moment in Parliament yesterday as MPs paid tribute to the late former minister Stanislaus Okurut, whom they described as a peace crusader, true patriot and a honest man, who sacrificed his life to restore peace in Teso region. The late Okurut, husband of the Minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development, Ms Mary Karooro Okurut, who succumbed to heart failure at the weekend at his home in Ntinda, led a government delegation to go and negotiate with the rebels of the Uganda People\u2019s Army in a mission where he was captured. The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Rebecca Kadaga, who presided over yesterday\u2019s session, told Parliament in her opening remarks that when she had just joined Parliament, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":11152,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kfm.dembefm.ug\/staging_h\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}