Lorna Magara: First woman at the helm of Makerere’s governing body

Lorna Magara the first female to lead Makerere University’s Council. Photo by Micheal Kakumirizi.

What you need to know:

Pioneer. There is power in purpose. Lorna Magara set out to be the best leader she can be and we can safely say she has succeeded. Her stellar leadership qualities landed her the top job at the Makerere University Council, writes Eric Kyama.

Makerere University, Uganda’s oldest and public premier university had never at any one time had a woman chairing its governing council until last year (December 2018) when Lorna Magara was chosen to chair the university’s top governing body.
Magara credits her background for this landmark appointment. “All through my childhood I had always been a leader. I held different prefectorial positions in the schools I went to. I do not think I always go into leadership directly. Most of the times the things I am engaged in find me somehow engaging in leadership,” Magara shares.
Magara was elected as deputy head girl and later head girl while pursuing her primary school education at both Victoria and Berkley Primary schools in Jinja.

Early life
Born in 1966 to Hezron and Catherine Kakuyo, Magara spent much of her childhood life in Jinja and was raised in an extended family.
“My father and mother had 10 biological children but because my father was an administrator and therefore fairly well off, he helped look after his extended family,” she shares.
It is this early life that shaped the kind of person she has turned out to become today.
“Growing up in a big family built a lot of confidence, openness because you are interacting with different people from different walks of life. Knowing how to deal with each person well helped me build my leadership skills, which came in handy later in life,” Magara says.

Getting started
Magara went to Victoria and Berkley primary schools, both in eastern Uganda, for her primary education. She then joined Gayaza High School for six years of her secondary education after which she enrolled for a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education at Makerere University in 1985 and graduated in 1988.
Upon finishing school, the young graduate joined National Social Security Fund [NSSF] in 1989 as a human resource training officer and spent close to seven years at the organisation.
“Working at NSSF for that long gave me exposure to a corporate working environment which shaped my interpersonal skills,” Magara relates.
Her stellar interpersonal skills led her into forming partnerships with different people and effect positive changes wherever she went.
“I was part of the team that set up development for the organisation which transformed NSSF and established the training department as well as man power planning fund into a dynamic and competitive organisation on the Ugandan market,” Magara shares.
She also partnered with Dorothy Kisaka to form a leadership development organisation called Destiny Consults which equips young people with the necessary life skills that schools ignore.
“Destiny Consults was born out of the need to teach some life skills that are not taught in school. You get out of university with a degree or any other academic qualification, but no one teaches you things such as how to relate, how to communicate, how to understand the person you are.
We came to realise that once some one understands themselves, their strengths, weaknesses, what moves them and how they communicate then they can be a leader of their own space. This was our mission as an organization,” she adds.
After close to seven years of working with NSSF, Magara resigned from the organisation. This decision, she says, was reached after realizing that her children needed more nurturing most especially from her as a mother.
“In 1996, I resigned from my job at NSSF. We realized that our children needed more nurturing and instilling values in them. So I decided to get back home and take care of my children. While I did this, I started working with GNLD on part time just to earn an extra income,” Magara shares.
Magara also started homeschooling her children which she did for close to three years before officially starting her own school, Vine International Christian Academy.
Joining the council
Magara says she received a call from Makerere University’s secretary Charles Barugahare who told her that she had been nominated to seat on Makerere University’s top governing council.
“I usually like to understand what I am getting into, so, when Barugahare told me I had been nominated to seat on Makerere University’s governing council, I decided to go for the first council meeting to try to understand what exactly I was getting into. This was before I was elected the chairperson. Then on December 20, another council meeting was held and it was in this meeting that I was elected to chair the University council,” she recalls.

The first 100 days
Magara has been at the helm for close to 100 days and she believes she is on target to achieve the things she wants changed at the university.
“I think everyone would love to see a better Makerere. It is the oldest university in Uganda and other universities benchmark from it. If it is not stable then there is a certain level of instability mostly in town. For the three months I have been at the university, some of the most pressing issues such as sex for marks and the likes are being worked on,” she says.

Women emancipation
“I strongly support women empowerment in light of the fact that a girl child is differently gifted. God gave a women unique gifts that if harnessed can make a great impact on the society. But I do not think that you have to put the men down for women to be empowered. I just think we all deserve an equal environment where we can co-exist with respect for each other,” she opines.
She adds: “I am a strong believer that when God made men and women, he gave them different qualities that help them fulfill their roles in society.
For example women are by nature nurturers, this makes them best suited when it comes to raising children, there are times when any being be it male or female are better off with their mothers. So I think much as we need an equal ground, there are roles in society that are best suited for different sexes.”

About leadership
“I think the current government has done enough to bring women in to leadership. Woman by nature are selfless and usually have higher commitment levels.
When they come into leadership, you see this in them. They come in as a whole. So I think society would benefit more if more women had more leadership opportunities.”
Lorna Magara is married to Dr James Magara and the couple has been blessed with four children three boys and one girl.