Former Presidential Candidate John Katumba turns into a ‘Rastafarian’

Former 2021 Independent Presidential Candidate John Katumba’s new look has left many shocked.

In a new photo shared on social media by professional barber Martbarber, Katumba is seen to have plaited dreadlocks.

Katumba, a 24 year –old man made news late last year when he joined the presidential race.

From being the youngest Presidential aspirant to running to the nomination Centre after his car suffered a puncture at Spear Motors junction to his manifesto, Katumba’s persona and confidence won him a huge number of fans during the elections.

Katumba lost to National Resistance Movement’s Presidential flag bearer President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni.

Facts about Katumba John

On November 2nd 2020, Mr. Katumba John, one of the presidential candidates, got a flat tyre on his borrowed van while on his way to the nomination grounds at Kyambogo University in Kampala.

A lot of other things followed, including him being rejected for lack of evidence of payment of the Shs20m nomination fees. He was, however,  declared a presidential candidate by the Electoral Commission the following day after he cleared the fees.

There was a lot of public debate on how the 24-year-old unemployed youth managed to traverse the entire country in search of signatures and managed to raise the Shs20m nomination fees.

Following his nomination, social media was awash with posts and comments questioning his source of the Shs20m nomination fees.

In addition to the nomination fees, Mr Katumba had to traverse the country to collect 100 signatures of registered voters from at least 98 districts out of the 146 to back his nomination.

Mr Katumba explained that his savings only helped him cater for fuel to move around Uganda in quest for the signatures. He said he made many friends while collecting the signatures, who started sending him money to raise the nomination fees. He said some people would send him around Shs1,000 via mobile money to contribute to his candidature. There people who gave him more money, though they did not want to be mentioned. They contributed because they believed in his candidature.

Not only was his Tax Identification Number (TIN) processed a day after his nomination bid was rejected, but he was also new on most social media platforms last year before elections early this year.

He said he was 24-years-old during the presisdential campaigns, when asked which year he was born, and he never gave room for details about his background. He adds that he belonged to the Kkonde family of Naalya-Kiwatule in Kampala, but he declined to reveal who the Kkondes are.

Mr Katumba, who was not married by then, said he was a fresh graduate of Makerere University Business School, where he did a course in Transport and Logistics Management and graduated in January.

He explained that he studied his primary education at Zion Hill Standard Academy in Buikwe District and later joined Central View High School in Mukono, where he finished both his O and A-Levels.

Until the amendment of the Constitution in 2017, the age limit for presidential candidates was capped between 35 and 75 years. If it had stayed that way, Mr Katumba would have had to wait for three more electoral cycles before qualifying to run for president.