Doctors, under their umbrella body, the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), have elected Dr Frank Asiimwe, a urologist and kidney transplant surgeon, as their new president.
Dr Asiimwe replaces Dr Herbert Luswata, who served as the association’s president from 2023 to 2025.
He will serve from 2025 to 2027. Information from UMA indicates that Dr Asiimwe won with 68 percent of the votes (366), while Dr Asiphas Owaraganise, an Obstetrics and Gynecology specialist, got 171 votes (32 percent).
A total of three doctors abstained from voting, according to the results announced Saturday last week. This election comes about a month after the association’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Mbarara suspended its leadership election in November due to accusations of deliberate interference in voter lists and electoral processes by some of the outgoing leaders.
After a tense but decisive session in November, the AGM then resolved to immediately dissolve the National Executive Committee (NEC) and appoint an Interim Committee of Elders, chaired by the past president, Dr Kenya Mugisha, to stabilise the association.
The AGM had also mandated this interim committee to convene an extraordinary general assembly within one month to elect a new NEC, which includes the election of UMA president
Dr Asiimwe, in his manifesto, said he intends to strengthen staffing levels in health facilities by ensuring full implementation of the already approved staffing norms for health centres and hospitals. He has also promised to revive and expand the policy of seconding government doctors and other health workers to private not-for-profit (PNFP) facilities.
‘This victory marks a new chapter, a pulling of the hand brake on the downward spiral of first principles of leadership at the helm of UMA, renewed hope because there indeed still 7,000 in the rank and file of UMA that haven’t bowed a knee to Baal,’ Dr Asiimwe stated after the win.
‘We pledge leadership where wisdom guides, service inspires, inclusiveness and consensus reign; the future of UMA will definitely shine brighter than ever, God being our help,’ he added.
According to UMA, Dr Wilberforce Kabweru was elected as the vice president, Dr Alone Nahabwe is the secretary general of the association, and he is deputised by Dr Charles Irumba. Dr Fortunate Ambangira was elected as the treasurer, and the other leaders include Dr Freddie Bwanga, Dr Joseph Gavin Nyanzi, Dr Beatrice Odongkara, Dr Henry Sekyanzi, Dr Mark Andrew Muyanga, and Dr Fidel Akiyo.
Who’s Dr Asiimwe?
Dr Asiimwe earned his medical degree in 1996, and in 1998, he became the Medical Superintendent of Kagando Hospital in western Uganda. In 2005, he became a qualified surgeon, where he focused his skills in solving the country’s pressing need as a fistula surgeon. He later pursued further studies in urology, where in 2010 he was a resident in Urology at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College, Tanzania.
He became a urologist at Mulago National Referral Hospital in 2012, and he was among scientists selected by the government to be trained in India to do organ transplants.
In 2016, he became the chair of urology at the hospital.
Dr Asiimwe has also been the one chairing the organ transplant committee at the hospital, which led the country to its first ever kidney transplant at the facility in 2023, along with scientists from India, and other transplants have since been conducted at the facility.
He was also an international consultant fistula surgeon in 2016 with Danja Fistula Center where he performed fistula surgeries and mentored other medics.