Barnabas Nawangwe

Today I enjoyed the sermon by Rev. Samuel Mbabaali on the topic: Remembering God’s Faithfulness With Grateful Hearts. So often, we humans tend to remember only the bad things that have happened to us, and we forget very fast the good things God does for us every day. I took the opportunity to remind that the people who took some of our ancestors into slavery for 409 years have found it very difficult to apologise for the most heinous crime against humanity in all human history, the slave trade. But while we are called to forgive as Christians, we must never forget, lest it happens again.

We were honoured to welcome Hon. General Katumba Wamala, who was at Makerere University to launch the book authored by Mr. Mohsin Hassan, son of Uganda’s first CID Officer, Mohammed Hassan. Mohammed Hassan was assassinated during the Idi Amin regime. The book titled BLOODSHED FOR POWER: THE ASSASSINATION OF UGANDA reminds us of the violence that characterised Uganda in the 60s and 70s. Makerere University is honoured that the author chose to launch this important book at our library.

This afternoon, the Lord Mayor of Kampala, Hon. Ronald Nsubuga Balimwezo presided at the International Day of Persons with disability in the Main Hall of Makerere University. It was good to see former deans of students, Uncle George B. Kihuguru and Uncle Cyriaco Kabagambe. Makerere honours our students and staff with disability and we continue to do everything possible to make their experiences of Makerere worth remembering.

It was a great moment today when I received my OB from the Kiev Institute of Engineering and Construction (Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture), Eng. Ishak Lukenge, a very patriotic and entrepreneurial Ugandan. Eng Lukenge introduced to me a young health systems innovator, Mr. Kigongo Felix Lubandi, a Makerere University alumnus of the Bachelor of Pharmacy, who has a passion for making health care more accessible through the use of technology.

The Makerere University delegation has held a cordial meeting with the Management of the University of Malawi (UNIMA), led by the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Samson Sajidu. We discussed the progress made on the implementation of their eCampus that is supported by Astria Learning. The success of the e-Learning campus at UNIMA underlines the importance of online education as the future for Africa’s higher education provision. We also discussed opportunities for bilateral collaboration. I thank the UNIMA for the excellent reception and engagements.