By Born on June 12, 1946, Cecilia Barbara Atim Ogwal was a management consultant, businesswoman, and politician from Uganda. She has served as the Dokolo District Women’s Constituency’s member of parliament. Since 1996, she has consistently served as a member of Uganda’s legislature. She passed away Today January 18, 2024, in a hospital in India from a disease related to cancer.
CHILDHOOD AND EDUCATION
On June 12, 1946, Ogwal was born in the Dokolo District in Northern Uganda. She went to neighborhood schools in Uganda.
She was accepted in 1967, when she was 21 years old, to the University of East Africa in Nairobi, which is now the University of Nairobi, to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
In 1970, she received her degree from Nairobi University. Additionally, she has a Certificate in Human Resources Management from the Uganda Management Institute, formerly known as the Institute of Public Administration. She also possesses two more certificates: one in public-private partnership from Australia and one in Christian Based Values from the Haggai Institute in Singapore.
CAREER
Ogwal served as the liaison officer for returning Ugandan refugees at the Uganda Embassy in Kenya from 1979 to 1980. She served as the Uganda Advisory Board of Trade’s operations manager from 1980 to 1981. She was employed at the Housing Finance Bank from 1982 until 1984 and was one of its founders. From 1981 until 1986, she presided over the Uganda Development Bank as its chair.
Her political career began when she was appointed Acting Secretary General of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) in 1985 and served in that capacity until 1992. She was a member of the Constituent Assembly in 1994, which wrote and approved the Ugandan Constitution of 1995. Up until 2004, she held a prominent position within the UPC political party. She was defeated in the 2006 legislative elections.
She lost her position representing Lira Municipality in the 2006 parliamentary elections to Jimmy Akena, the son of UPC founder Milton Obote.
Ogwal ran for and was elected to the Women’s Representative position for the recently established Dokolo District in 2011. This time, she ran as a full member of the Forum for Democratic Change after switching political parties.
Ogwal is a married mother of seven natural children and several adopted ones.
In 1969, at the age of 23, she won the “Miss Uganda” contest.
Ogwal is a member of the parliamentary Committee of Physical Infrastructure in charge of overseeing and covering policy matters related to Lands, Housing, Urban Development, Works and Transport, and Physical Planning. She was also a member of the budget committee.
