By Spy Uganda
Kampala: The Bududa woman MP and State minister for Karamoja affairs Agness Nandutu dropped out of school in s3 due to lack of school fees. Her mother who was a housemaid in Kenya also took her to do the same job in Kenya in order to earn a living.
Nandutu later returned from Kenya and then went to Mbale Town to become a bar and restaurant waitress. She did the jobs so well that even the owners of the businesses feared she was too good to be true.
At S3, Nandutu later came to Kampala and took over UBC airwaves Elgon section like a storm, talent and Harwork took her places. She would then shift to Daily monitor and later NTV. She then went back to school, sat for 0 and A levels before vying for Mp Bududa.
Nandutu narrated that from Mbale Restaurants and Bars, she came and settled in Wabigalo, a Kampala slum together with her cousin where she had hoped to get a good job in Kampala bars and restaurants, but later developed an interest in journalism after visiting Radio Uganda where her cousin had a friend.
Nandutu then started doing a health show on radio where she earned shs 16,000 and later pursued a career in journalism following her friend’s advice.
“I did voice training and started doing a health show on radio. I was a freelancer then and my first salary was Ugx 16,000. My friend encouraged me to study journalism, so, I went to Uganda Institute Of Business and Media Studies and got a certificate.” Agnes Nandutu narrated while appearing on NTV’s Mwasuzze Mutya show on Friday morning.
She then joined Monitor, impact radio and radio Uganda from where she decided to upgrade her education to a diploma.
By then she had four children and had to juggle motherhood and four jobs with different media houses.
‘Within the time I joined Impact radio had four children. I had to juggle motherhood and about four jobs at the same time. I started reporting at parliament at Impact FM and one time while I was in the field at a workshop I got into labor” she noted.
Nandutu’s journey into politics started when she started people’s parliament that airs on NTV and people started giving her ideas to join politics which later pushed her to go back to school.
”When I started the people’s Parliament I wanted to give people a voice. People started pushing me to stand for MP but I wasn’t interested. I wanted to retire in the newsroom. In 2013 I went back to school at Uphill College Mbuya to complete my S4” Nandutu said.
”I sat my senior 6 in the same school in 2015 and I did not pass so I went back in 2017 and resat my exams. Wherever I could go, people were pushing me to join politics, my Pastor inclusive. Daniel Kalinaki encouraged me to join politics without money” she noted.
Nandutu noted that in Bududa primaries, she walked door to door because she had no money but unlucky she lost primaries. During elections, two people were disqualified which worked to her advantage. The incumbent won 2/28 sub-counties and Nandutu was declared the winner.
To her surprise, Nandutu was named in the cabinet by President Museveni as State Minister in charge of Karamoja to which she says she never expected in her whole life.
” I did not see the ministerial position coming as a first-timer. The president has been my friend for a long time as a journalist but we were not that close. Being an MP was enough for me because winning a seat was a miracle. I read the cabinet list and cried because I was in disbelief” Nandutu said.
