Health Ministry Permanent Secretary Dr Diana Atwine is a true public servant of today, going about her work beyond people’s expectations.
Unlike many senior government officials who feel that traveling out of the country is time to relax, Dr Atwine does otherwise.
A few days ago she was spotted at the waiting lounge before travel, busy with her office work.
If service beyond self has a symbol, then, it has to be this one. Whereas some civil servants use the foreign travel for shopping, tourism, relaxation, for Dr Atwine it is keeping herself updated with her work.
Who is Dr Atwine?
Atwine was born in 1973, in Galiraya, a small community on the southern shores of Lake Kyoga, in Kayunga District, in the Central Region of Uganda. She is the daughter of Ernest Rujundira and Joy Kensheka Rujundira, being their third-born.
She attended Bweranyangi Girls’ Senior Secondary School for her middle school (O-Level) and Mt st Marys Namagunga girls’ school for her high school (A-Level) education. She was admitted to Mbarara University School of Medicine, where she pursued a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree.
Following that, she specialized in Internal Medicine and was awarded a Master of Medicine degree by the same University.
Dr Atwine worked for a brief period at St. Francis Hospital Nsambya, before she joined the Uganda Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC). From there she went to the State House of Uganda, where she was given the title of the President’s Private Secretary in Charge of Medical Affairs.
In that capacity, she served as one of President Museveni’s personal physicians. In 2009, she was tasked to head what was officially known as the Medicine and Health Services Delivery Monitoring Unit, specifically tasked to investigate corruption in Uganda’s Ministry of Health.
By June 2010, the unit that she headed had uncovered an illegal racket by Ugandan and Kenyan officials to sell drugs across their common border, brought 78 cases to court ,recovered stolen drugs worth more than Shs200 million (US$60,000) and arrested at least 12 impostors, pretending to be qualified health workers, when not.
Then in August 2010, she revealed nearly 300 ghost workers on the payroll of Mulago National Referral Hospital.In a reshuffle of permanent secretaries cabinet-wide, she was appointed to her current position, on 4 November 2016.
Dr Atwine is married and is the mother of three children.
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