Faculty Archives - Uganda Christian University Partners

Dr. Martin Kizito, the newly appointed Dean of the School of Social Sciences at UCU.

By Best Nyapendi
Dr. Martin Kizito is the new Dean of the School of Social Sciences at Uganda Christian University. Kizito, who was appointed last month, succeeds Rev. Assoc. Prof. Andrew David Omona, who has held the position for the past five years.

“I consider this a divine calling. Being redeployed back to social sciences meant a possibility of being appointed dean because, while I was in the school, previously, I had already served in the other different leadership roles and more so committedly, except that role of deanship. But honestly, I had not seen it coming this soon,” Kizito said. He has worked in UCU since 2009.

Having previously served the university as Head of Grants and Partnerships in the Directorate of Research Partnership and Innovation, Kizito will be replaced by Dr. Jonathan Tumwebaze, who will oversee grants and research, while Dr. Miriam Mutabazi will spearhead partnerships and community engagements.

He believes that this new position will empower him to implement best management and administrative practices he’s been observing in different institutions across the world.

Rev. Assoc. Prof. Andrew David Omona (left) handing over office to Dr. Martin Kizito.

His vision builds on the foundation laid by the previous dean, with a focus on revitalizing the school’s legacy, especially after Covid-19 impacted negatively on the students’ numbers and overall engagement activities.

Kizito’s revitalization agenda prioritizes growing student numbers through national and international students’ recruitment, applied teaching and learning, students’ engagement activities, improved customer care, staff research and publication.

In order to ensure that more postgraduate students complete their courses within the recommended timeframe, Kizito intends to use the e-dissertation management system. The system will cultivate a culture where supervisee-supervisor interaction is monitored, to provide tailored support virtually through research clinics. He has also targeted collaborating with the rest of the faculty to develop a more generalized PhD program. The program can attract more students and boost the school’s profile, capitalizing on the recent abundant harvest of over 5 PhDs in the last year.

Kizito said they are closely being supported by the office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor Academic Affairs, to run several market-driven professional short courses in areas like Child Development and Ministry, Development Monitoring and Evaluation, Counselling Psychology, Special Needs Care, Public Policy and Governance.

“We are also in the process of introducing a monthly symposium, to promote scholarly debates and showcase the expertise in the school. Already, several teams have been established to promote multi-disciplinary grant writing, research and publication, leveraging the experience from the Directorate of Research Partnership and Innovation.

To attract more students to the undergraduate programs in the school, Kizito chairs a committee working on an aggressive marketing strategy for the school’s unique programs. He plans to revive the schools’ traditions of regular community engagements with non-governmental organizations and local governments, the annual anti-corruption week with partners in the transparency and accountability sectors, as well as reputable guest lectures for students’ career guidance.

“We also count on extending our networks to the churches, working with the Office of Church Relations and building partnerships of mutual benefit with schools where most of our students have been coming.”

It is also timely for us to revive students’ activities through their different professional associations, which provide a platform for students’ mentorship by senior practioners.

He noted: “Our alumni have exceled over time and are well placed in international, regional and national organizations, and are very much willing to support their school regain its dominant position in the university.”

And he believes that the faculty should be able to guarantee excellent customer care at the school, effective teaching and timely release of results. “It is for that reason that we are going for a retreat to reflect on where the gaps could be and lay strategies for improvement.”

In 2016, when Kizito sensed that the university had started entrusting him with big assignments, he returned to school to pursue a doctorate, knowing well that fortune favors a prepared mind. At the time, he had been appointed the Head of the Department of Public Administration and Governance at UCU.

“Being head of department meant I built the standard for the rest of the staff, so I felt challenged,” Kizito said during an interview he granted Partners last year. “At some of the committees where I represented UCU as head of department, almost everybody was a professor.”

At the time Kizito was appointed head of department, he had a Master’s in Public Administration and Management (Makerere University), a Postgraduate Diploma in Monitoring and Evaluation (Uganda Management Institute) and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science (Makerere University).

A few months into his role as head of department, Kizito was also appointed as coordinator of the Master of Research and Public Policy program, jointly run in 13 African countries and representing UCU on the steering committee of Partnership for African Social and Governance Research, based in Nairobi, Kenya

As head of department, he was central in establishing the Master of Governance and International Relations program, as well as the review of the programs of Master of Research and Public Policy and the Master of Public Administration and Management.

“I would feel that God had granted me opportunities to serve, but I needed the PhD to bolster my capacity,” Kizito said.

“So, going by my previous training and experience, I needed a PhD in Public Policy Evaluation to be ready to maximize any opportunities that would come my way.”

In hindsight, Kizito’s appointment could be attributed to his attaining of a PhD from the University of Pretoria in South Africa last year, further cementing his belief that fortune favors the prepared.

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Bishop Joel Obetia and his wife, Joy, at their home, a week after being discharged from hospital

By Jimmy Siyasa

After recovering from Covid-19, retired Bishop Joel Obetia of the Madi and West Nile diocese in northwestern Uganda has stopped taking certain things in life for granted.

Bishop Joel Obetia drinking a concoction of Vitamin C to boost his body immunity.

“Many times, we forget to thank God for the free oxygen,” he said. “A disease like Covid-19 clogs your lungs and you are asked to pay millions of shillings for oxygen to support your breathing.”

Bishop Obetia, together with his wife, the Rev. Canon Joy Obetia, was in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Mulago Hospital in Kampala for around two weeks. Their health deteriorated from contraction of Covid-19.

On the evening of Monday, January 11, 2021, the twosome arrived back at their home on the Uganda Christian University, Mukono Campus. Their return from hospitalization replaced long-held anxiety with bursts of irrepressible joy among their family members.

Besides running a busy pastoral life, Obetia, 64, an academic, also doubles as a lecturer at Bishop Tucker School of Theology and Divinity at the main campus in Mukono. His wife, Joy, 62, is the Assistant Chaplain at St. Kakumba Chapel, located in Kyambogo, a suburb of Kampala. At St. Kakumba, she heads the weddings, welfare, women and prayer/ intercession ministries.

The two had been in ICU since December 27, 2020. Still frail and fragile by the time of this interview, they were under close medical monitoring. They can only resume their clerical and other activities when doctors say so.

Bishop Obetia and his wife, Joy, arrive at All Saints’ Cathedral Kampala in January 2020 before being diagnosed with Covid. He had gone to confirm new converts. (Internet photo)

“Their return is an answered prayer,” exclaimed Gloria Obetia, the couple’s oldest daughter and a health care worker 500 miles from Kampala, at Kuluva Hospital, Arua. “Such a relief! At first, we felt that they were going to die because they were badly off. But God has worked a miracle.”

She delivered healthy food daily to her parents ever since they got admitted. Gloria and other family members last saw the couple, looking lifeless, three days after the 2020 Christmas holiday. They were being whisked away to Mulago National Referral Hospital, dangling between the hands of the emergency team and death.

“It has been God since day one,” said a jolly, 22-year-old Miriam Litany Pakrwoth, another one of the couple’s daughters. “They could’ve lost their lives in the process of being transferred from Mukono to Mulago because their oxygen intake was so low.”

The Obetias’ initial arrival at the Mulago hospital was marred with tension, suspense and anxiety. One of the voices of fear and doubt that contributed to this unease was reportedly a nurse in whose hands the patients had been cast.

Mercy Dokini, 16, the couple’s youngest daughter, recalled the nurse saying, “5 to 8 people in your parents’ condition die every day. You better pray and fast for them.”

Triggered by the nurse’s pessimism, Mercy and her older siblings took to persistent prayer and fasting. Not only family but also friends and the faithful to whom the Obetias minister were constantly on bended knees and gave generously. Not on any single day were prayers and goodwill in short supply.

“I want to thank God for the faith he has allowed us to plant in our children,” said a contemplative Joy Obetia. “They have been praying and fasting for us ever since.”

She recalls pocketing about $100 as contingency cash, on their way to the hospital. But it stayed untouched throughout their admission. Their God through friends “supplied all their needs according to his riches in Glory.”

“God used so many people to support us,” said Bishop Obetia. “People were calling in from the USA, UK and all around the world. The support was overwhelming. UCU had close contacts who kept a close watch of us, to keep the community updated.”

Obetia and his wife believe that their place in the church somehow opened doors to the “overwhelming support and respect” they received while at the hospital. Another plus is that their admission caused a dramatic turn in not only meal scheduling, but also quality of the meals.

“Breakfast would be served late, at about noon and then lunch would come like at 3:00 p.m.,” said Joy Obetia. “I sympathize with those only depending on hospital meals.”

However, the tardiness in the hospital’s welfare department stopped at the intervention of State Minister for Northern Uganda in the Uganda cabinet, Grace Freedom Kwiyucwiny, a sister to Joy Obetia. This was to the advantage of the majority of more economically challenged, less high-profile patients who often endure helplessly within the healthcare system.

When asked where and how they may have contracted coronavirus, the two pointed to some of the congregations unto whom they had last-ministered before their health deteriorated on December 27, 2020.

“I personally officiated so many weddings – two of them on November 29, 2020,” Bishop Obetia recalled. “And on December 12, 2020, my family attended a wedding of my niece at St. Johns Church, Kamwokya. Thereafter, I travelled from Kampala to Arua, where I officiated another wedding on December 19, 2020. Then, I began to show Covid-19 signs like an intense cough.”

Obetia confessed that by the time he travelled to Arua, his wife, Joy, was already severely sick. Hence, on return to their home on the UCU campus, they tasked themselves to test for the virus, only to realize that that the potential “angel of death” had visited their household. On February 5, 2021, they are grateful that it didn’t remain.

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