President Yoweri Museveni has mourned the late First Deputy Prime Minister ,Eriya Kategaya  a  long serving college and close  friend from high school .President Museveni  learned  about the death of Eriya Kategaya while on his official tour to Busia and Tororo districts .

“Am terribly sorry about the death of my long serving colleague,” the President  said.

Eriya Kategaya was a  reputed and historical member  of the ruling NRM party.He met the president of the party ,Museveni in  1953 when he and President Museveni were pupils at Kyamate Primary School, in Ntungamo District. This friendship  grew more as they  met again in Mbarara High School and again at Ntare School.

Kategaya was part of Museveni’s Front for National Salvation (FRONASA), a group of Ugandan exiles in Tanzania who eventually helped topple Idi Amin in 1979 with the help of the Tanzania People’s Defence Force.

In 1980, he was a founder of the Uganda Patriotic Movement, headed by Museveni to contest in the elections. When Museveni launched the guerrilla struggle against the Milton Obote II administration (1981 – 1985), Kategaya served in the ‘External Wing’ of the rebel National Resistance Movement (NRM) and National Resistance Army (NRA).

EriyaEriya Kategaya  passed away on Saturday from Nairobi  Hospital  in Kenya where he was suffering from a condition known as Thrombosis, caused by a blockage preventing the flow of blood in the body.Born July 4, 1945,Eriya Tukahirwa Kategaya also served as  Minister for East African Affairs by the time of his death.