BOU Official Dead

By Felix Osikeand Grace MatsikoTHE Executive Director of Administration (formerly Secretary) Bank of Uganda, Joshua Baitwa Mugyenyi, 55, has died.He died yesterday in Pretoria Hospital, South Africa, after a long battle with cancer of the throat, a family member said. Mugyenyi’s wife, Mary Rutamwebwa, is Member of Parliament for Nyabushozi, Mbarara and Minister of State for Animal Industry.“The Board of Directors with deep sorrow announce the death of Dr. Joshua Baitwa Mugyenyi, a former Executive Director Administration, which occurred in South Africa today,” read a release from BOU.Mugyenyi is survived by four children. He is expected to be buried in Ntungamo district. He joined the Bank of Uganda on April 27, 1988 as Secretary. He became the Executive Director (Administration) and Board Secretary in 1993.He remained Executive Director after the separation of the two posts in 1998. He was scheduled to retire from BOU in May.Mugyenyi was also the chairman of the Makerere University Convocation Committee.He was also a member of the National Resistance Movement External Wing for Southern Africa.He graduated from Makerere University in 1971 with a degree in Political Science. He later pursued a Masters in Political Science at Manchester University in UK and obtained a PhD from Dalhouse University in Canada in 1994.Mugyenyi was an assistant lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration (now Uganda Management Institute) and senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science, Makerere University.In 1981, he made a dramatic escape from Mitchell Hall, where he was a resident tutor, breaking through a security cordon of government soldiers and made his way to exile. He served as NRM’s Secretary for Youth.Ends