KAMPALA – Today we thought you should get to know who your ICT and National Guidance Minister, Hon. Dr. Chris Baryomunsi is.
Born 9 December 1969, Baryomunsi is a Ugandan physician, public health specialist, demographer, and politician who subscribes to the ruling party, National Resistance Movement – NRM.
He is known to be an independent thinker, who is not afraid to disagree with his party when it diverts “from pro-people issues”.B
From 1 March 2015 until 6 June 2016, he served as State Minister of Health for General Duties.
Baryomunsi is the elected member of Parliament for Kinkizi County East.
Early life and education
Baryomunsi was born in Murama Village, Nyakishenyi, Rukungiri District, to the late Aloysius Mpungirehe and the late Rosaria Kamayangi.
In 1971, when he was two years old, his parents migrated to Kayungwe, Rugyeyo in the present-day Kanungu District.
Baryomunsi attended Kayungwe Primary School for his primary education and St. Paul’s Seminary, Kabale for his O-Level and A-Level education before he was admitted to Makerere University to study human medicine.
In 1995, he graduated with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree and in 1997, he was awarded the Postgraduate Diploma in demography, and in 1998 he received a Master of Arts in demography, all from Makerere.
In 2003, Baryomunsi received the Postgraduate Diploma in HIV/AIDS Management from the University of Brighton. In 2016, he obtained a PhD in Public Health majoring in Maternal Health from Atlantic International University, USA.
Medical career
From 1995 until 1998, he worked as a medical officer at Mulago Hospital. From 1999 to 2002, he worked as a reproductive health adviser for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit.
Baryomunsi later worked as a reproductive health advisor for United Nations Population Fund – UNFPA between 2002 and 2006. He also worked as a lecturer at Makerere University between 2000 and 2006.
Political career
He began his political career in high school, where he served as the elected minister for education at St. Paul’s Seminary from 1988 to 1990.
While at Makerere University in the early 1990s, he was the finance secretary for the Federation of African Medical Students’ Association and the secretary for finance for the Makerere University Medical Students’ Association.
In 2005, he was appointed as a UNFPA HIV/AIDS Advisor for Harare, the job he turned down so he could contest in the 2006 Ugandan parliamentary election.
He ran as the NRM political party candidate for the Kinkiizi County East constituency in Kanungu District and was elected to Parliament. He was also elected president of the African Parliamentarians Forum on Population and Development.
While in Parliament, he served on the Social Services Committee and has served on the Health and HIV/AIDS Committees to date. He also has served as a Parliamentary Commissioner for NRM in the Parliament of Uganda from June 2011 to April 2014.
On 1 March 2015, he was appointed as State Minister of Health for General Duties. On 6 June 2016, he was appointed State Minister for Housing.
Other considerations
Previously, he has served in the following capacities:
Vice chairperson of HIV/AIDS and Health Committees, in the Parliament
Chairman of the board of directors of the AIDS Information Centre
Technical advisor on HIV and AIDS, GTZ
Programme advisor, United Nations Population Fund
Member of the Parliamentary Budget Committee
President of the African Parliamentarians Forum on Population and Development
President, Rotary Club of Kabarole
Personal details
Baryomunsi is a Mukiga by ethnicity who was born and raised in a Roman Catholic family. His father converted to Catholicism in the early 1950s, despite having been raised in a Protestant household.
Baryomunsi is married to Fosca Twebaze and they are blessed with children.
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