Woman at the helm of Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers

For years, men dominated the field of sciences. Women who opt for sciences and technology related studies are still relatively less than men, and have not aggressively challenged the prejudice against women when it comes to the field of engineering.

However, Dorothy Kabagajju Okello dared to explore the engineering terrain when she decided to join the race to assume the highest office of the Uganda Institution of Professional Engineers (UIPE) beating two male contestants to become the first female president of UIPE.

She is currently the principal investigator at netLabs Uganda, is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Makerere University and the Director of Innovation, Eastern Africa Resilience Innovations Lab (EA RILab). When you meet her, she comes off as jolly, affable, shy but bold.

Her background
Okello went to Kololo Nursery school (now the Aga khan nursery School), and Kitante Primary Pchool for her primary education. She went to Namagunga secondary school for her O and A) levels then Makerere University for her Bachelor of Science in Engineering (Electrical) in 1992.

She went to Texas, United States of America for further studies, a move she says contributed to her success because it paved way for all the opportunities she had always dreamt of. Okello went to USA to pursue a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and in 2004, she received Doctor of Philosophy in Electrical Engineering from McGill University, Canada as a Canadian Commonwealth Scholar.

She says her father inspired her into the engineering field because he always expressed his confidence in her exceling at sciences and eventually becoming a better engineer in future. “My parents were the best mentors. My mother was very encouraging. Never was I discouraged that I could not manage engineering the way other girls are demoralised,” she says.

Her journey to the office
Okello describes her journey to the presidency of UIPE as a struggle that almost saw her collapse due to stiff competition. She and two male engineers competed for the same seat. She had not consented to her name being on the list of nominees but her name was there.

“I was not consulted but when I found my name on the nominee list, I reflected on it, but of course it was not an easy decision to make,” she narrates. “Considering there are few female students at the institute, I was scared and thought I would lose the race because I was competing with two proficient men. However, I was voted by many men because gender equality was my manifesto.”

Family life
Okello grew up in a big family; “Just like an African traditional family, I had many cousins which I think was good as you learn to share and get exposed to different people all the time.”

She adds; “Work-life balancing is very important, people need to be conscious about it and being conscious about it may not mean you are excellent in it, but at least you are paying attention to it.”

Okello is a married passionate mother of two girls and a boy but is very sensitive about her family. She may not be able to spend a lot of time with her family but when she is with them, she utilises every opportunity to make them feel it is important.

What others say
The communications manager Resilient Africa Network (RAN), Harriet Adong, describes her as a brilliant, caring, humble, flexible woman who is open to learning. “She gives everybody an opportunity to learn and explore. Many top management personnel tend to do the work themselves because they think they can do it better and do not let others learn. She opens up opportunities to people to ensure that they are satisfied,” Adong says.

Edwin Mugume, a lecturer at Makerere University, refers to her as a woman with a strong character and always good at what she does. “She is somebody who works on merit. She has been my mentor for the 10 years since I joined the field of engineering and considers people by their potential and not by their looks or relationship with her. She picked me up when she saw potential in me.”

Eng Barongo Ronny, Manager at Civil Aviation Authority, heading the engineering department, asserts that women who have joined the engineering field are doing exceptionally well except that they are few compared to men. “Women who join engineering are over taken by the number of male, you find that in every 10 engineers you have only one female and I think this comes from the mind set up, traditional values. Also inherently women think the work is for the strong people, which is not the case. They know the challenges and traditionally they used to think they are weak that is why they tend to excel trying to do against it to cover their weakness.”

Okello, the activist
Dorothy Kabagajju Okello is an activist for women’s rights and empowerment. She founded the Women of Uganda Network (WOUGNET), a non-governmental organisation which promotes the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) among women in Africa. She is famous for her efforts to promote gender parity in Uganda through getting more women and rural humanities engaged in the information society through WOUGNET.

She was one of the top 10 recognised personalities that shaped Uganda’s ICT in 2011 and the first recipient of Africa’s Digital Woman Award. On October 7, 2012, she won the Women Achievers Award for her notable service in empowering women and girls through Science and Technology. The engineer explains that the award has played a tremendous role in motivating her to perform her duties as a woman activist.