KAMPALA – The Uganda Nutrition fraternity under their umbrella of The Nutrition Society of Uganda (NSU), are saddened by the passing of Dr. Kisamba-Mugerwa Wilberforce who they say tremendously contributed to the advancement of the cause of good nutrition in Uganda.
Dr. Robert Mwadime, the NSU President says the Late’s contribution to nutrition fulfilled the great words of Nelson Mandela; “There is no passion to be found playing small in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.”
“We are mourning the passing of a man who dedicated tremendous effort in ensuring rural economies’ transformation. Along the way, he realized that without improved nutrition, there could hardly be any significant impact on the lives of Ugandans. He envisaged and championed nutrition as a cross-cutting issue with economic, socio-cultural, political, and biomedical dimensions and that it was imperative for all sectors of the economy to pay particular attention to the core potential of nutrition in human capital development and socio-economic transformation of society. He appreciated the importance of integrating nutrition in all sector plans for balanced economic development,” said Mwadime.
According to him, Dr. Mugerwa ensured that Uganda embraced nutrition in her governance structures.
“He tirelessly guided technocrats at the National Planning Authority in guaranteeing that nutrition was well catered for in national plans.”
Consequently, Mwadime says nutrition was recognized as a key development ingredient in the 2nd and 3rd Uganda National Development Plans and in Uganda’s Vision 2040.
In his [Dr. Mugerwa] tenure as Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries, Dr. Mwadime says he spearheaded the agriculture modernization agenda and development of the multi-sectoral Uganda Food and Nutrition Policy of 2003. “This was one of the earliest efforts in recognizing the immense potential of nutrition to Ugandan’s well-being.”
Mugerwa was also lauded for working with various partners to develop the Uganda Nutrition Action Plan (2011 to 2016) that scaled up multi-sectoral efforts to establish a strong nutrition foundation for Uganda’s economic development.
“As a result of Dr. Mugerwa and other key stakeholders’ efforts, on 17 March 2011, the Republic of Uganda joined the Global Scaling up Nutrition (SUN) Movement and became a member of countries that took a firm commitment towards advancing and improving nutrition as a development priority in national, continental and global development frameworks. This culminated into the formation of the SUN secretariat based in the Prime.”
Minister’s Office.
He recently published his memoir which is a great story of a patriot who had served his country diligently in many respects. He has been working on a book about Ghetto Economics, which he, unfortunately, has not been able to complete.
Therefore, Dr. Kisamba’s demise is a big loss for humanity given his immense contribution to the wellbeing of society. The members of NSU join the family and the rest of Ugandans to mourn a gallant son that worked so hard to guarantee the commitment of the Government of Uganda in fulfilling her constitutional obligation of ensuring food and nutrition security for all.