President Museveni orders official burial for former Minister Joyce Mpanga

President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has directed that the former Minister of State for Primary Education, Joyce Mpanga be accorded an official burial.

This was revealed by the Minister for Presidency and Chairperson National Organising Committee, Hon. Babirye Milly Babalanda yesterday.

“I wish to inform the General Public that H.E the President has granted an official burial to the fallen former Minister of State for Primary Education, Joyce Mpanga. The N.O.C and family will issue a detailed burial program. Sympathies to the family and fellow Ugandans,” Hon. Babalanda said in post on X.

Ms. Mpanga,89, died on Saturday, November 18, 2023 at Kampala Hospital.

Ms. Mpanga was a fighter for women’s rights and a woman of many firsts: She was one of the first women to be nominated to the Uganda National Assembly in 1960; the First African woman lecturer in the faculty of education at Makerere University; the First female graduate with a master’s degree; First minister of Women’s Affairs in Uganda in 1988 and First female Minister for Primary Education in Uganda in 1989-1991, and Gayaza High School’s first African Deputy Headmistress.

Apart from serving in the cabinet of Uganda, Mpanga also served as a Member of Parliament for the Mubende District from 1996 to 2001. In between her political positions, she took part in the rewriting of the Constitution of Uganda in 1995. In 2009, Mpanga became a member of the Lukiiko for Buwekula and has been a representative of women for Buganda’s parliament since 2011.