Mary Karoro Okurut also serves as the elected Member of Parliament for Bushenyi District Women's Constituency.

In 1972, at the age of 18, she entered Trinity College Nabbingo to carry out her high school education.

[9] Mary Karooro Okurut began lecturing at Makerere, in the Department of Literature in 1981, as soon as she completed her master's degree.

[11] Prior to her political career, Okurut was perhaps best known for her contributions to Ugandan literature both as a writer and as the founder of the Uganda Women Writers Association (FEMRITE),[12] an organisation which has since received international attention and has to date produced one winner of the Caine Prize, Arach Monica de Nyeko, whose story "Jambula Tree" won in 2007.

She also edited "A Woman's Voice" (1998) (ISBN 9789970901036), a collection of short stories by Ugandan women writers.

[14] she wrote the curse of the secradecow In 2004, Mary Karooro Okurut contested for the Bushenyi District Women's Constituency on the National Resistance Movement political party ticket.