By KT Reporter
Haruna Adam Emaga, the first Member of Parliament for Arua Municipality, has passed away. He served as MP from 1989 to 1996. Emaga died on Monday evening at Arua Regional Referral Hospital at the age of 83, after being admitted on January 20th due to a depression-related illness.
According to family sources, Haruna, who had been living in Niva Cell in Arua Central Division, Arua City, was first admitted to Kampala last year after sustaining a fracture. He later recovered and continued working on his farm until he suffered from depression.
One of the daughters of the late Haruna, identified only as Sumaya, described her father’s death as shocking, noting that he had not had any health complications before this.
Fadhil Lemeriga, the Prime Minister of Aringa Kingdom, whose father grew up at the late Emaga’s home, said that the death of Haruna is a significant loss to the Aringa people and the entire West Nile region.
He noted that Emaga had offered a home to all Aringa people who settled in Arua in the 1960s, regardless of their social status. Lemeriga also described the late Haruna as a selfless leader and a living library who steered the Arua Municipality to greater heights.
Similarly, Jaffer Alekua, a senior citizen and a classmate of the late Haruna at Arua Muslim Junior Secondary School (now Arua Primary School), described the late Hon. Haruna as someone who believed in and practiced violence-free politics.
In the 1970s, Haruna served as the Manager of General Motors, an American company that imported cars from Europe and America for sale in Uganda, until the 1979 war that toppled Idi Amin’s government.
He went into exile in Zaire and returned in the mid-1980s. In 1989, when Arua Town Council was elevated to a Municipality, Emaga contested for the seat, then called Council Member (CM), against Jumabuti Joram Ajeani (RIP) and Ali Doka Kujo, both of whom lost to him.
Haruna studied at Nyai Primary School in the Koboko District and later moved to Arua in the 1950s, where he joined Mvara Secondary School. His remains will be buried today at his ancestral home in Lima, Ludara Sub County, Koboko District-URN. Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
