Mugasha – a life of triumphs and fulfilled dreams

“In 2006, the President wanted to make me a minister of Public Service, but I refused. I wanted to spend some time reorganising my farm and my life. I told him I would consider the position in two years. I have not seen him since then,” says Florence Mugasha, an education entrepreneur. She is visibly frail, but at 76, Mugasha has a sharp memory.

After an illustrious life in the public service and private sector, the public administrator only has one regret. She wishes she had been a judge.

“In 1969, I was admitted to Dar es Salaam University to study Law. But, I was in love at the time. There was no way I was going to Tanzania. I cancelled my admission and joined Makerere University to study Public Administration and Management,” she reminisces.

The love for the law never left her, though, even when she excelled in the public service and went on to join the Commonwealth Secretariat in London, United Kingdom, as deputy secretary general of the Commonwealth.

“There is something about judges and lawyers that I admire up to now. There are times when I ask myself why I changed my calling. But, I think I made more contribution as an administrator and manager than I would have made as a lawyer or high court judge,” she says.

Born on November 4, 1948, perhaps the roots of Mugasha’s modesty can be traced back to the fact that her father was an interpreter to British evangelists. His passion for education also inspired her to establish two private primary schools – Hillside Primary School Naalya, in Kampala City and Flobbeto Nursery and Primary School in Hoima City – that are among the top tier in the country. Her father and his British bosses moved around the country, spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It was in Mbarara, that her father, a Munyoro, met her mother, a Munyankore. They had 13 children – 12 girls and one son. “My mother was the daughter of a county chief, so it was easier for us to go to school. Of course, my father was under pressure to marry a second wife and have more sons. But, he resisted because he was a born-again Christian,” she says. 

The evangelists her father worked with would not have tolerated him taking a second wife anyway. Besides, he could afford to educate all his 13 children. Mugasha attended Mbarara Girls School, Kyebambe Girls Secondary School for junior secondary, Mary Hill High School, and then, Mt. St. Mary’s College Namagunga for her A-levels.

“When I joined Senior One, school fees became because after Independence the missionaries left and my father lost his job. That is how my family returned to Hoima district. Luckily, I received a six-year full bursary from the Bunyoro government,” she recalls. In her last year at Makerere University, Mugasha applied for jobs in the Public Service and Foreign Service.

“Everyone wanted me to go into the Foreign Service but that meant I would be posted abroad. I had promised my friend that I would get serious with him after graduation. It was a difficult choice to make, but I opted for Public Service. I was posted to the Office of the President as an assistant secretary,” she says.

Mugasha graduated from Makerere University in October 1972 with an upper second-class degree. At the time, she had married the man who was the reason why she did not pursue her Law degree or a posting in the Foreign Service.

“I got married in September 1972 and graduated a month later, in October. Our wedding was held at St Francis Chapel, Makerere University. I began a family immediately and had four children,” Mugasha says. She also helped her father pay for the education of her siblings.In the President’s OfficeAlthough Mugasha was too junior to interact with President Apollo Milton Obote, she admits he had qualities that she admired. “We appreciated his accent. He spoke very good English.

Although he had dropped out of university, he looked educated. And, he promised us communism. It was the ideology of the day. As young people, we looked forward to everybody owning the same things, houses and attending the same schools,” she laughs at the memory. The 1971 coup d’état by (then) Colonel Idi Amin did not disrupt her work. 

The new President did not interfere with his staff’s schedules. “(President) Amin did not touch the administrators; he was more interested in politicians. Of course, we – especially the young women – were discouraged from attending functions where he was expected to make an appearance. We were really sheltered from him at government parties and on Presidential trips,” Mugasha says.

President Amin’s love for women was a well-known open secret. It is claimed that he fired his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Princess Elizabeth Bagaya, because she rejected his advances. During the 70s, Mugasha was posted to the Ministry of Agriculture in Entebbe and, then later, to the Ministry of Cooperatives based at Farmers House. By 1979, she was back in the President’s Office, this time as a principal assistant secretary and pursuing a postgraduate diploma at Uganda Management Institute (UMI).

“The 1979 overthrow of Amin almost caught us unawares. Communication about the progress of the war with Tanzania was not well spread, and if you were caught listening to the BBC World Service you would be reprimanded. I was still in the office when I heard that the Tanzanians (soldiers) were on Bombo Road,” she says.

The President’s Office is three kilometres away from Bombo Road. A combined force of the Tanzania People’s Defence Force (TPDF) and Ugandan rebel groups overthrew President Amin. The war between the two countries began in October 1978 when the Uganda Army (UA) attacked and annexed the Kagera Salient, a strip of land in Tanzania bordering the Kagera River.

“I drove to Wandegeya in a rush to pick my children from Buganda Road Primary School. I was stopped by a group of army men. I did not know whether they were Ugandans or Tanzanians. I was heavily pregnant and luckily, that got me their sympathy. One of them told his colleagues to let me drive on,” she recalls.

After picking her children from school, she took the family back to Hoima to wait out the chaos. Her husband, though, refused to leave the city. He was a lecturer at UMI. Mugasha returned to Kampala after three months, when the TPDF put an announcement on Radio Uganda calling on government employees to return to work.

“The local government of Hoima district gave me a security detail that traveled with me up to Nansana. The city was relatively calm but there were bodies on the streets,” she recalls.

Internal Affairs and Public ServiceOn January 25, 1986, when the victorious National Resistance Army (NRA) rebels stormed Kampala for the final standoff with the government army, the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), the administrator was in Manchester, UK, studying a Masters degree in Public Administration and Policy.

“It was a terrifying moment. My children were in Kampala with their father. There were no planes flying to Uganda and you could not ring directly to Kampala. One had to call Nairobi and wait for a connection to Kampala. The Rockefeller Foundation was sponsoring my education and I was advised not to abandon it. I had to calm myself down,” she says.

Immediately she handed in her thesis, she was on a plane to Entebbe. She was posted to the Department of Animal Industries in Wandegeya. In 1986, Mugasha was promoted to undersecretary. She was later promoted to Permanent Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“At 38, I was the youngest PS, and I was supervising undersecretaries and principal secretaries who were much older than I was. That was challenging. I had to work very hard for them to recognise my seniority and status,” she says.

One of the tougher nuts to crack was the Inspector General of Police (IGP), the late Luke Ofungi. At the time of her promotion, he had been a policeman for 35 years and had been IGP since 1979.

“I was supervising Uganda Police Force, Uganda Prisons Service, the Immigration Department, and the Government Chemist and Analytical Laboratory. I could see that the IGP found it difficult to salute me and stand to attention in my presence. But, later on, we became friends. I think he realised I was there to stay,” she smiles at the memory. 

The Government Chemist is now called the Directorate of Government Analytical Laboratory.

Secretary to Cabinet

 After the 1992 public service restructuring the Head of the Public Service came under the Office of the President. When Mugasha was appointed PS in the Ministry of Public Service, she became Secretary to the Cabinet.

“I had a deputy secretary who physically took minutes in Cabinet meetings, while I handled the overall policy analysis, implementing cabinet papers, and reminding ministers of actions they should have taken,” she says.

Reminding ministers of their duty was not a walk in the park, though, and Mugasha says, sometimes she would find herself shaking in her shoes.

“Imagine sending back the vice President’s instructions on something because it has not been cleared to be put on the cabinet paper. It took guts. Another thing was that three people chaired the cabinet. You would start getting used to taking minutes from one chairperson, and then, on another day, someone else would chair,” she says.

Of course, when the President chaired the cabinet it was more of directives than discussions. Even today, the Oath of Secrecy still hangs over Mugasha’s head.

“You live with a lot of secrets in the cabinet, all of which you cannot share with your partner. Imagine knowing something is going to happen but you have to keep it to yourself. I remember one time Uganda was going to close its border with Kenya. Of course, this was going to affect the transportation of fuel and other commodities,” she says.

Mugasha recalls that her husband was not happy with her silence but there was no force that would compel her to leak the information to him.

“He asked why I had not told him and I reminded him that I had sworn the Oath. If I had told him, he might have told a friend and before long, there would be long lines at petrol stations in Kampala,” she says.

Up to now, there are secrets she cannot tell. She says she wanted to write a book about her life but she was denied clearance by the government. By the 1990s, Mugasha had been at a higher rank than her husband for a long time. She says sometimes, this affected her marriage, especially the long hours she worked.

“Sometimes, cabinet meeting end at 2am. Opening that gate for me at 3am was hard for him. One time, I returned at 5am. He asked me, ‘What have you come back to do? You may as well go back to where you are coming from.’ I was expecting his reaction, but I couldn’t ring to inform him that I would be late because the President was chairing the meeting,” she reminisces.

She adds that gradually, her husband learned to accommodate her late coming, although he could not hide the fact that it was affecting him.

“I think the early love we had for each other held our marriage together. We had loved each other for eight years before we got married. He was my friend. So, sometimes he would lose it and then realise he is hurting a friend, and he would come around,” she says.

Her husband died in June 1999, leaving her with four children.Joining Commonwealth SecretariatIn March 2002, the Commonwealth Secretariat advertised the position of deputy secretary general in-charge of finance, administration and youth. After 35 years in public service, Mugasha felt it was time to move on.

“I told the President that I wanted to apply for the job. My competitors were an undersecretary general of the United Nations and three permanent secretaries from Canada, Malaysia, and Botswana. He thought there was no way I was going to make it so for formality, he allowed me to apply,” she says.

She took a flight to London that Friday, sat for the interview on Saturday morning and by Sunday morning, was arriving in Entebbe.

“I received the call that I had passed the interview as I was entering my house in Kololo. On Monday, I made an appointment to see the President. He was looking for me to discuss the cabinet meeting scheduled for Wednesday. When I broke the news to him, he couldn’t believe it. He said, ‘What!’” she says.

She adds that the President admitted that he had permitted her to do the interview because he did not want her to complain. He knew that the competition would be too much for her.

“He asked, ‘When do you report?’ I told him in April. He said, ‘You are not going until you select a new secretary to cabinet and a new deputy. Otherwise, consider your appointment canceled.’ Of course, if he did not sign the papers to release me, the Commonwealth Secretariat would not take me,” she explains.

Dismayed, Mugasha began lobbying different ministers for help.

“I went to (Ruhakana) Rugunda. He told me, ‘Florence, you know your boss. If he has said no, then just call it a day.’ Luckily, I finally recommended four names to the President and he selected two. I reported to London in April 2002,” she recalls.

Working at the Secretariat was an eye-opener. Coming from Uganda, she was now in a place where once her budget was approved, she immediately got the funds and technical assistance to implement projects.

“And of course, the salary was really good. I lived in London for six years and I enjoyed the exposure tremendously. In Uganda, I was always in the background when the President was meeting heads of state. But, in London, I was the one meeting the heads of state,” she says.

She was in-charge of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, and took whatever opportunity she had to enjoy the Caribbean scenery, culture and ocean cruises.

“I had a line of cars waiting for me everywhere I went, especially in Africa. People opened doors for me and carried my handbag. It was a completely different life and I couldn’t see myself returning to government service,” she says with a smile.

In the private sphereAfter four years, Mugasha’s term of office came to an end, and when she returned, the President offered to make her Minister of Public Service. She tactfully turned him down.

“I had started Hillside Primary School Naalya with others just before I joined the Commonwealth Secretariat. When I returned, I devoted myself to its growth. After 15 years, I started Flobbeto Primary School for purely sentimental reasons because I did not need an income,” she says.

She wanted to give back to Bunyoro kingdom for granting her a scholarship in the 1960s. Secondly, since her husband was from Mbarara district, she wanted to have something of her own in Hoima district.

“I also wanted to honour my parents. My father died a fulfilled man. He used to go to Flobbeto and just look at the school buildings. I remember on his last day on earth, he told me, ‘Florence, you have made me a happy man. People blamed me for having many daughters, but I have proved them wrong,’” Mugasha says.

She advises employees to set aside money every month to cater for rainy days because life is uncertain.

“I started a second school to help girls fulfill their dreams. I encourage the students to attend secondary schools in other parts of the country so that they can get exposed to different kinds of life,” she adds.

ADVISE ON MARRIAGE TODAY

Mugasha cautions young women not to take the quest for equality to the extreme. Instead, she asks them to be mindful about their responsibilities in the home.

“This equality business does not work. There should be shared responsibilities. Some girls take it too far by returning home late in the night. For some children, the most popular ‘person’ in the house is the TV because their mothers are never there for them,” she advises.

On her return from London, in 2006 President Yoweri Museveni appointed Mugasha the first Chancellor of UMI. She has also served on the boards of several organisations and is now retired. Her children run her school