Norbert Mao

Norbert Mao is a Ugandan lawyer and politician. He is the current president of the Democratic Party,^[1] and the Local Council 5 (LC5) Chairman for Gulu District.

Background

He was born on 12 March 1967. His father was Acholi and his mother was a Munyankole. Both his parents are deceased as of September 2009.

Education

Norbert Mao attended Mwiri Primary School, in Jinja, and briefly went to Wairaka College, in Jinja District, before attending Namilyango College, a prestigious all-boys boarding high school in Mukono District, from 1982 until 1988. He then attended Makerere University between 1988 until 1991, graduating with a law degree LLB. He served as the president of the Makerere University Students Guild between 1990 and 1991. He went on to obtain the Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Center in 1992. In 2003, Mao was admitted to Yale University, under that university's World Fellows Program, where he spent one year at the New Haven, Connecticut campus.

Work experience

From 1992 until 1994, Norbert Mao worked as an Associate Attorney in the offices of Kabugo and Co. Advocates, a Kampala-based law firm. Between 1994 and 1996, he worked as Legal Counsel of the Legal Aid Project of the Uganda Law Society, in their Gulu office. In 1996 he was elected the Ugandan Parliament, representing Gulu Municipality. While in parliament, he served on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee and on the Public Accounts Committee. He resigned from Parliament in 2006, and was elected Chairman of Gulu District, a position he holds until today.

Mao is chairman of the East African chapter of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) and member of its Secretariat.^[2] Also, he helped found the Great Lakes Parliamentary Forum on Peace (AMANI Forum). He was instrumental in trying to bridge the gap between the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and the Ugandan government by lobbying for the passage of a general amnesty law aimed at bringing a peaceful resolution to armed conflict in Northern Uganda.^[3][4]

Personal details

Norbert Mao is married to Naomi, they have two sons. He belongs to the Democratic Party and has publicly indicated his intention to contest the 2011 Ugandan presidential elections, either as the nominee of his party or if not nominated on the party ticket, as an independent.^[5]

Norbert Mao was elected as President of the Democratic Party (DP) on 20 February 2010 and ran for President of Uganda in the 2011 general election. The DP faced a lot of challenges that led to a split and deep polarization at the height of the election. He attracted only a small share of the vote, and President Yoweri Museveni was elected to another term. Norbert Mao and Inter Party Coalition presidential candidates Kizza Besigy and Olara Otunu, among others, protested the election results in spite of its early approval by international observers and the US as largely free and fair.^[6] Mao speaks Luo, Luganda, Runyankole and English fluently.^[7]

References

Succession table as President of the Democratic Party

External links

• Acholi Web Site for Northern Uganda
• Website of Gulu District
• Norbert Mao on Facebook