Kamuli Municipality Rehema Watongola is dead.
By Our Team
Another Member of Parliament (MP), representing Kamuli Municipality, Rehema Watongola is dead.
Watongola succumbed to the Covid-19 infection from Mulago National referral hospital on Saturday morning where she had been admitted.
She becomes the second Parliamentarian to succumb to the virus after Pallisa district Woman MP Faith Alupo who passed on in September.
In 2017 Watongola reclaimed the Kamuli municipality parliamentary seat after beating four other candidates including Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) flag-bearer, Proscovia Salaamu Musumba.
Others in the race included Samuel Walugyo (Independent) and Mike Kiboome (Independent).
Watongola garnered 8726 to defeat her main rival, Musumba with a margin of close to three thousand votes. Musumba, whose petition challenging Watongola’s victory in February 2016 was the reason for the by-election, garnered 5778 votes.
Watongola, had lost the Kamuli Municipality National Resistance Movement primaries to Mastula Namatovu and claimed that mercenaries from the National Unity Platform influenced the polls. She proceeded and was nominated as an independent candidate.
By November 12, Uganda had cumulative 15,402 Covid-19 cases and Watongola’s death could increase the number of deaths which was 144. The country had had 8,038 recoveries.