A former minister in President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni’s government has been admitted at the Mulago National Referral Hospital in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Prof Edward Rugumayo Bitanywaine was a minister of internal affairs in the Museveni government and had also served as minister of Education in Idi Amin Dada.
The former minister, now 87 years of age (having been born in 1934), is not very fine and has been admitted at the Mulago National Referral Hospital for treatment. On November 03, State Minister for Health in charge of Primary Health Care and Fort Portal North Division MP Margaret Muhanga Mugisa revealed that she had visited Rugumayo at Mulago.
Muhanga shared photos of herself with Prof Rugumayo (who also served as Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry, as well as Uganda’s High Commissioner to South Africa) at his hospital bed but later deleted them from micro blogging site Twitter. But she left a trail of the tweet: a correction for the word chancellor.
The elderly Rugumayo is a very respected academic. A few months ago, he fell in things after President Museveni appointed him Chancellor of Mountains of the Moon University, the 10th public university in the country.
Mountains of the Moon University (MMU) became a public university at the start of the current 2022-2023 Financial Year in July 2022 and was established under the Universities and other Tertiary Institutions Act. In a memo issued on August 18, 2022, MMU University Secretary Dr Edmond Kagambe confirmed the appointment of Prof Rugumayo as the Chancellor of Mountains of the Moon University.
“We are thankful to His Excellency, the President of Uganda and the university council for recognizing Professor Edward Bitanywaine Rugumayo’s distinguished service as a politician, diplomat, author, academic and environmentalist and granting him the opportunity to serve Mountains of the Moon University as 1st chancellor as a public university,” wrote Dr Kagambe in his memo to staff. “The university community extend warmest congratulations to Pro. Rugumayo on his appointment and pledges full support during his tenure of service.”
Educated at Nyakasura School, University of London and University of Liverpool, Rugumayo had served as the Chancellor and Chairperson of the MMU Board of Directors of MMU since the university’s licensing by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) in 2005.
In the photos that have since disappeared from Twitter, Prof Rugumayo looked to be steadily improving and on a path to recovery. It was not clear what is ailing the old professor, and why Minister Muhanga deleted the tweet about her visit to check on the professor in in hospital.
However, as expected, while some people were busy wishing Prof Rugumayo a quick recovery, others were attacking the minister and throwing verbal jabs at her in their criticism of her work in government. The Ministry of Health, where Muhanga works, is currently in some kind of cold war with the US Embassy in Kampala over Ebola Money, after Ambassador Natalie Brown refused to give billions of money to the Dr Jane Ruth Aceng-led Ministry, choosing to instead channel the funds through agencies on the frontline of the Ebola fight. (See all the details HERE).
Meanwhile, former Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi was also reportedly rushed to a hospital in Dubai in critical condition. (Read Story Here).
