Uganda seeks Shs680b to rebuild ex-US President JF Kennedy library
This picture taken on November 22, 2023 shows a library at Lango College named after former US President John F Kennedy. Plans are underway for a rebuild. PHOTO/BILL OKETCH
What you need to know:
- The currently dilapidated library was built around 1961. The facility had also become the engine of academic excellence for Lango College students.
Rebuilding a library named after assassinated US President John F. Kennedy at Lango College, will cost over Shs680billion, authorities at the school in Northern Uganda have said.
A team comprising former students of Lango College has already been assigned to meet President Museveni to appeal to him to champion a global resource mobilisation for the state-of-the- art library.
The launch of the global campaign is expected before the end of 2023, according to former Lango College student Dr George Piwang Jalobo.
“The facility to be constructed with Ambassador Caroline Kennedy House annex is planned to become a regional centre of excellence in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in greater northern Uganda,” he added.
Dr Piwang noted that over the years, the John F. Kennedy library has suffered “decay and neglect”.
“It was looted during the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) war. Most of the books were burnt as rebels used them for cooking. Neighbouring villagers also came and looted the library,” he told this publication on Saturday.
An artistic plan shows the planned John F Kennedy to be rebuilt at Lango College.
Dr Piwang said on November 22, 2023, Lango College Old Students Association (LACOSA) and Northern Uganda Regional Development Forum (NURDEF) entered into a memorandum of understanding to ensure the library is rebuilt.
NURDEF, which is implementing a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) project of local priorities and partnership activity, has John F Kennedy library implementation as its first activity, according to Mr Bosco Odongo from NURDEF.
Dr Piwang notes that the ambitious project will go a long way to promote recovery and development of human capital in post-LRA war northern Uganda.
“The significance of this occasion is to mark the 60th anniversary of the assassination of the great former US president,” he said.
JF Kennedy was slayed on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, West Virginia in the United States of America.
“But ever since 2011, we the old students who knew the glory of the Kennedy library, who benefited from it, who became researchers, academicians and intellectuals, thanks to the Kennedy library, resolved to rebuild and revive the library,” Dr Piwang remarked.
“That is why we came up with first of all Lango College at 50 jubilee project (1961-2011) of the President John F. Kennedy Library, Science, Technology, Engineering Centre and Ambassador Caroline House Annex as the JF Kennedy library complex at Lango College. In 2021, it became our diamond jubilee project of Lango College at 60 (1960- 2021),” he explained.
Lira Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Geoffrey Okaka acknowledged that Lango College is among giant traditional schools devastated by the LRA war in Northern Uganda.
But he expressed optimism that “if the library project is successfully implemented, Lango College will regain its lost glory.”
About John F Kennedy library
The currently dilapidated library was built around 1961. The facility had also become the engine of academic excellence for Lango College students.
