Former Makerere University vice chancellor, Professor Venansius Baryamureeba has this morning unveiled his 2016-2021 presidential manifesto ahead of next year’s general elections.
Early last week Prof Barya, as he is commonly referred to, returned his nomination forms to the Electoral Commission and he now awaits nomination to stand for presidency.
“I have already booked October 5, 2015 as the date for my nomination as a presidential candidate,” he said adding: “I would like to announce to all Ugandans that I have already fulfilled all the requirements for nomination.”
Prof Barya announced his presidential ambitions in May this year, and came up with 12 issues which form the basis of his manifesto.
Among the 12 points are provision of health services, job creation, agriculture, governance and foreign policy. Other issues are infrastructure development, minimum wage, industrialization, defence and security, zero tolerance to corruption and, the relationship between religious and cultural institutions and the central government.
The professor maintains that a special touch has been accorded the youth who make up the biggest portion of the Ugandan population, and hastens to add that the points in this manifesto represent the views of Ugandans collated after a countrywide consultation exercise.
“This is a people’s manifesto since the views in it have been collected from the grassroots through our consultations before the Electoral Commission stopped us from carrying out public consultations,” he said.
PROF BARYA AT A GLANCE
He was born in Kasharara village, Kagongo Parish, Ibanda District, in the Western Region of Uganda. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, obtained in 1994 from Makerere University. He also holds a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy, both in Computer Science from Bergen University in Norway, awarded in 1996 and in 2000, respectively. In 1997, he was awarded a Postgraduate Diploma in the Analysis of Linear Programming Models by the University of Trondheim, also in Norway.
Career
His academic career began soon after his first degree, when he worked as a teaching assistant in the Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics at Makerere University, from 1994 until 1998. He then worked as an assistant lecturer at the Institute of Teacher Education Kyambogo, which now is part of Kyambogo University, from 1995 until 1996. While pursuing graduate study in Norway, he worked as a teaching assistant in the Department of Informatics at Bergen University from 1997 until 2000. He also worked as a Research Fellow, in the same department and institution, from 1995 until 2000.
Beginning in 1998 until 2000, he worked as a lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Makerere University. He was a senior lecturer in the Institute of Computer Science at Makerere University, from 2001 until 2006 (which was transformed into the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Computing and IT (FCI)). He then became an associate professor, and, in November 2006, he was made a Professor, continuing to teach until August 2012 at FCI. From October 2005 until June 2010, he served as the Dean of FCI.
From November 2009 until August 2012, he was Vice Chancellor of Makerere University.
After that he founded the Uganda Technology and Management University, where he has served since September 2012 as the Vice Chancellor and as a professor of Computer Science in the School of Computing and Engineering.
