He continued to maintain contact with pro-LGBT activists outside the country, with LGEP executive director Phumzile S. Coming back to Uganda in 1998, he decided to come out in public through a press conference he was arrested and held in police custody for a week due to this action. He left to teach for a few years in Johannesburg, South Africa during its transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy, becoming influenced by the end of the apartheid-era ban on sodomy and the growth of LGBT rights in South Africa. Later, he came out to his twin brother John Malumba Wasswa. It was here that he became aware of his sexual orientation and was subsequently dismissed without any benefits in 1991.
He was educated at King's College Budo and Kyambogo University and taught at various schools including the Nile Vocational Institute in Njeru near Jinja. Born to the Kisule clan in its ancestral village of Nakawala, Namataba Town Council, Mukono District, he received the name 'Kato' because he was the younger of twins.
