Professor Edward Rugumayo to preside over Engabu Za Tooro Board of Directors Inauguration

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Engabu Za Tooro (Tooro Youth Platform for Action) which is accredited to offer advisory services to UNESCO (ICH Convention) will officially inaugurate its Board of Directors on Saturday, 21^st April 2018 at Gardens Restaurant – Fort Portal which will be presided over by Professor Edward Rugumayo.

More on the occasion, follow this link http://engabuzatooro.or.ug/engabu-za-tooro-will-officially-inaugurate-board-directors-saturday-21st-april-2018/

The Board of Directors of Engabu Za Tooro are Prof. Oswald Ndoleriire Ateenyi who is the patron, Msgr. Peter Kumaraki who is the Board Chairman and Mr. Stephen Rwagweri Atwoki who is the Executive Director.

Other Board members are Dr. Richard Irumba Amooti (PhD), Mr. George Mwebembezi Atwoki, Mrs. MaryTibamwenda Atwoki, Mr. Isaaya Kalya Atwoki, Ms. Barbara Kabanyoro Ateenyi, Mrs. Winifred Mabiiho Atwoki, Mrs. Vanice Kagaba Amooti.

Professor Edward Rugumayo

Edward Rugumayo is a politician, diplomat, author, academic and environmentalist in Uganda.

Currently, he is the head of the Tooro Elders Forum. He has previously served as cabinet minister in three Ugandan administrations.

From 1979 until 1980, Rugumayo served as the chairman of the Uganda Legislative Council, the equivalent of Speaker of Parliament today. He currently serves as the Chancellor of two Ugandan universities which are Mountains of the Moon University based Fort Portal and Kampala University based in Kampala. He is an avid botanist and a community leader.

When he returned to Uganda in 1966, he taught briefly at Kyambogo before joining Makerere University, as the Warden of Mitchell Hall, one of the halls of residence. In 1971, Idi Amin successfully led a coup d'état against the Obote I administration. Rugumayo was appointed Minister of Education, through connections with his friend Wanume Kibedi, a lawyer, with whom they had studied in London and who was an in-law to Idi Amin. Kibedi was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In February 1973, one year and eight months on the job, Rugumayo resigned from Amin's cabinet; the first member of the cabinet to resign. He went into exile in Nairobi, Kenya, staying there until 1979, when Amin's regime was toppled.

After the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) and the Uganda National Liberation Front (UNLF) captured power in Kampala, with the assistance of the Tanzania People's Defence Force (TPDF), Rugumayo was appointed chairman of the National Consultative Council (NCC), the parliament of the time. This is the equivalent of the Speaker of Parliaments today.

Rugumayo was instrumental in removing Yusuf Lule from power, when Lule disagreed with the NCC on procedural protocol when making cabinet appointments. Lule was replaced by Godfrey Binaisa.

In May 1980, while Rugumayo was in Arusha, Tanzania, the Binaisa administration was also deposed in another coup d'état. This time Rugumayo stayed in exile until 1992. That year, he returned to Uganda and joined the National Resistance Movementadministration of Yoweri Museveni.