Eng. Dorothy Kabagajju Okello is the new President of Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers. The celebrated Engineer beat two other male engineers to assume the highest office of UIPE.

She got 169 votes beating Eng. Vincent Chwo with 125 votes into the second position while Eng. Mubaala collected 25 votes in the third position.

The elections were held at the weekend in Kampala during the Institution’s annual general meeting. Eng. Dr Okello takes over from Eng. Dr Isaac Mutenyo and becomes the first female president in the male dominated profession at the institution founded in 1972.

Who is Eng. Dr Dorothy Kabagajju Okello

She is the Principal Researcher, netLabs!UG at College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology, Makerere University

She achieved a Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Electrical) from Makerere University in 1992, and moved to Texas, USA to undergo a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1995 as a Fulbright Scholar. In 2004 she received Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Canada as a Canadian Commonwealth Scholar.

Eng. Dr. Okello has always been an active in the area of women’s rights and empowerment. She founded the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), a non-governmental organization to promote the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) among women in Africa.

She has served as a board member of the National Board of Action Aid International Uganda (AAIU) to work with the poor women, men, boys and girls, the local civil society, and other development players to eradicate absolute poverty in Uganda by overcoming the inequality that cause it.

She currently serves on the expert panel of Women Thought Leadership Advisors and APC-Africa- Women which empower women’s organizations to access and use ICTs for equality and development.

For her work in this area she has been awarded the ‘Top ICT Woman – Uganda ICT Excellence Awards 2009’, “Top 10 Personalities that Shaped Uganda’s ICT in 2011” and the Women Achievers Award in 2012 as well as being the first recipient of Africa’s Digital Woman Award.

She is a member of the governing Council for Uganda Institute for Information and Communications Technology (UICT) as well as Vice President, Electrical Division of Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE).

She is currently the principal investigator at netLabs!UG, Senior Lecturer, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Makerere University and Director of Innovation, Eastern Africa Resilience Innovations Lab (EA RILab).

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President Yoweri Museveni has called on investors to exploit Uganda’s tourism potential, describing it as a gold mine.

He assured them that there was a lot of untapped potential in the country’s tourism sector noting that all the country’s national parks and game reserves are safe while the government has done all it take to halt poaching.

The President was meeting a group of investors in the tourism sector led by Dr. Max Graham the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Space for Giants an organization dedicated to conservation of the African elephants on the sidelines of Giants Summit. Giants summit a special tourism conservation meeting was convened to draw strategies to counter poaching and safeguard the elephants.

President Museveni further appealed to them to take advantage of the big agricultural potential of the country’s agricultural sector and invest in the agro-processing industry noting that the country has continued to export unprocessed agricultural products due to lack of enough investors in the sector.

He particularly appealed to them to come and invest in the processing of fruits; cereals, leather, bananas and the mining sector and assured them of the government support and cooperation.

Mr. Max Graham and his team told the President that they interested in investing in tourism conservation, eco-tourism, education and promotion of agriculture and agro-processing.

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President Yoweri Museveni has said that for Africa to conserve her wildlife, the environment and all her natural habitat, the continent needs to invest in the transformation of her population.

Museveni said that this will enable people to shift from low technological agriculture to industrialization and services sector.

“There are four threats to elephants and to all conservation efforts; markets for ivory and animal horns, criminality and corruption internationally and in individual countries, an under developed population and democracy” President Museveni said.

Adding “With an under-developed population, even if you stop the markets and the criminals, it will still be a threat to animals. Maintaining under development is a threat. I hope it’s not part of the conservation. You cannot maintain an under developed population and think that you can maintain conservation. It is not possible,” he said.

Museveni made the remarks while addressing the inaugural Giants Club summit; an organization of Heads of State, business leaders, key influencers and conservation experts devoted to ensuring a future for elephants and the landscapes they depend on forever.

The African continent has lost more than 70 per cent of elephant stock to poaching. The Giant’s Club has the Uganda, Kenyan, Gabon and Botswana’s presidents as members and has several philanthropists, environmentalists, conservationists, and several stakeholders in the tourism and wildlife conservation sector.

Museveni said in democracy, when people invade wetlands, forests etc it is not easy to get them out.

“When my voters invade the wetlands or forests, it is not easy to get them out otherwise they will vote me out. In my opinion, I would propose that you address the strategic challenges of shifting the population from low technology agriculture to industry and services.

It becomes easy to mobilize resources internationally to metamorphosis the population from pre-industry to industrialization. In Europe only 2 per cent of the people are in agriculture, the rest are in industry and services,” he said.

He emphasized that if the population remains in low agriculture and it is growing, the only solution is to invade forests for arable land and it’s not only the elephants but conservation suffers.

“Modernization of infrastructure including roads, electricity, railway etc will attract industries and services and in turn attract people away from agriculture into industrialization. There are too many people in disguised unemployment (agriculture) in the villages,” he said.

“In my opinion, a multi-dimensional approach to these issues will solve the problems. Deal with the demographics and changing population attitudes. In Uganda, by 1986 the population of elephants dwindled to 2000 from 30,000. It has now grown to about 6000 because of our strong stand on conservation. For us, we send poachers to heaven prematurely,” he said.

Museveni said the biggest challenge that Uganda is struggling with now are people encroaching on forests, wetlands etc.On his part, the host and Kenyan President Uluru Kenyatta, said conservation of the African elephant is no easy matter.

“These giants must contend with many threats: illegal killing for ivory and other products; conflict with humans; and loss and fragmentation of habitat. For some elephant populations, the magnitude of these threats is such that many predict they may be lost entirely. But if we act as would be required of us, I am convinced they will not be lost” Kenyatta said.

Adding “There is convincing evidence poaching is aided by international criminal syndicates; it fuels corruption; it undermines the rule of law and security; it even provides funding for other trans-national crime. This directly threatens the capacity of our nations to achieve sustainable and meaningful socio-economic development”

President Ali Bongo of Gabon said that poaching is not only dangerous to the tourism and wildlife conservation efforts but to the lives of its people and the future generation.

“Illegal gangs look for tasks to finance other activities like drugs and human trafficking. This illicit trade has contributed to insecurity and instability on the African continent,” he said.

President Bongo said citizens need to be sensitized on the importance of wildlife and conservation.“It’s a challenge in my country. My voters say elephants can’t be more important than people. In the next elections, they are telling me to go ask elephants to vote for me,” he said.

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