Alumni Turned MP

ALUMNA TURNED MP

By Daphne Bukirwa

Before she was the women’s representative for Kamwenge District, Hon. Bahireira Tumwekwase Sylvia, was like every other CIU student struggling to complete her assignments and make good grades, in order to complete her Bachelors of Science in Nursing at Clarke International University. She joined Clarke International University- then International Health Sciences University, in 2019 and was among the second lot of nursing graduates from the University in December of 2012. She recounts her experience at CIU as very empowering and enlightening. “After that experience, I felt like I could accomplish anything.”-and indeed she did. After graduation, she was immediately promoted to Senior Nursing and Midwifery Officer at Rukungyu hospital in Kamwenge. While at the hospital she transformed the whole nursing section, applying all her knowledge from CIU to her work. She then joined Uganda Martrys University Nkozi to do her Masters of Science in Nursing. After her Masters, she still felt like her calling was to serve her district. She moved back and worked as the acting Health Officer of Kamwenge. It was while she was working as acting health officer that she realized that in order for her to make real change, she had to be involved in policy making. “I am not an office person. As a health care worker, you need to be in the field. And while in the field, I learned the needs of my people. I realized a lot of my people did not have the basic needs like water. I knew I had to get involved more.” She then left public service and joined a Belgian Development Agency as she pursued her political ambitions. She had enormous support from her family. Her husband and children encouraged her and were very accommodating, even when her work took time away from them. She got support from the people of Kamwenge, who already saw her as a beacon of hope and change.

Most of her political inspiration steered from watching her father, a local village leader resolve people’s problems. “Locals came to him with all kinds of issues and he was able to help”. Her father planted