KAMPALA – The former Minister of State for Primary Healthcare, Dr. Emmanuel Otaala, at the weekend returned to Uganda after spending seven years in self-imposed exile in the USA.
Dr Otala, who was defeated by Jacob Oboth Oboth in the 2016 general election, left the country then amid concerns that he had accumulated many debts.
But the former minister, while addressing his supporters who had gathered to welcome him back from the United States of America, said he is seeking for re-election as Member of Parliament for Budama South come 2021 general elections.
“I did not want to disobey my voters who have requested me to contest again. Am so grateful for the trust they have in me because I thought they had even forgotten about me,’’ he said.
Dr Otaala served as the State Minister for Labour from February 2009 until May 2011. Before that, he served as the State Minister of Health for Primary Care from June 2006 until February 2009. In the cabinet reshuffle of 27 May 2011, he was dropped and replaced by Mwesigwa Rukutana.
From 1999 until 2000, Otala worked as a pharmaceutical sales representative for Medreich Sterilab Pharmaceutical Company, through Surgipharm (Uganda) Limited. He then worked as a medical officer at the Association for the Cooperation between Ticino, Switzerland and Uganda from 2000 until 2001. During the same period, he worked as the Deputy District Director of Health for West Budama South. From 2002 until 2004, he worked as a medical consultant with the Give Us Wings Children’s Project, a Ugandan charitable non-government organization. From 2002 until 2005, Otala served as the medical director of the Tororo District Hospital.