Uganda’s Funerals Services boss, Regina Mukiibi dies

The founder of the Uganda Funeral Services, Regina Mukiibi, passed away yesterday after a short illness. She was 65.
An official from the Uganda Funeral Services, who preferred anonymity, confirmed the death of Mukiibi saying she had breathing complications.
She died at Entebbe International Airport as she was being flown out to seek treatment.
The official referred this reporter to the son of the deceased, Mr Joseph Nsubuga, who is also the general manager of Uganda Funeral Services. 

However, we were unable to reach Mr Nsubuga as his phone was engaged, but he confirmed to NTV Uganda the death of his mother and asked to be given time to mourn.
Mukiibi and her brother, the late Fred Katamba, started Uganda Funeral Services in 1997.
The funeral home was the first of its kind in the country. 
Now, the business has a number of players and many people employ funeral service companies to handle the funeral arrangements for their loved ones.

In an interview with Daily Monitor in 2015, Mukiibi said introducing the concept of funeral services in Uganda was hard due to the cultural barriers.
“In Africa for example, women are expected to handle the bodies of their dead husbands with bare hands. It would be deemed inconceivable or disrespectful for them to handle the body with gloves,” she said. 
She said the hurdles were too many that she contemplated returning to the banking industry.

“It was a hard start because Fred, with whom I had envisaged the idea and established the business, died. That was a difficult moment, a deciding moment,” she said.
She added: “I had to choose between swimming on with the business and sinking it. I even went to the extremes of contemplating about returning to the bank though I expected they would not allow me,” she says.
Mukiibi notes that if it was not for the passion to help the bereaved, she would have given up.
But with courage from a few personnel, mainly sourced from family, she propelled the company forward into the new millennium, battling several other major hurdles. 

Background
Before venturing into the funeral service business, Mukiibi worked with the Uganda Commercial Bank for 15 years before retiring in 1993.
She later started a tour company with her brother. It is during her time with the tour company that she found out about the funeral service business. 

“The airline used to pay 75 per cent of our travel fees. I travelled a lot, to different continents. It was, however, in America where we stumbled upon the idea of a funeral services business,” Mukiibi said.
She added: “I was awed by the way the Americans managed and buried their dead in a really respectable and gracious way. That is when my brother and I noted that we did not have such a service back home.”

She then went back to school to study how to run a funeral service business. After training from the Salzburg Funeral Science Institute in the UK, where she earned a Diploma, she returned to Uganda, closed the tour business and started Uganda Funeral Services.
Dr Julian Adyeri Omalla, the founder and CEO of Delight Uganda Ltd, described Mukiibi as a God fearing person.
 “I am a Catholic, and she was a Catholic. She was a woman who loved God. All our meetings were about God,” Dr Adyeri said.

Dr Adyeri said out of church, Mukiibi was a person who believed in herself and committed to work. 
“She turned the impossible thing into a possible one. I think that is the reason she was able to keep her business going. In all the things she did, she exhibited transparency, hard work and creativity,” Dr Adyeri said. 
Dr Maggie Kigozi, the former boss of Uganda Investment Authority and friend of the deceased, said Mukiibi was a great investor and won several accolades in Uganda and abroad, but at the same time looked after her children well.

 “I liked the way she raised and trained her daughters. Her daughters were very good. She dedicated time for the family,” Dr Kigozi said.
Dr Kigozi said Mukiibi found a tough terrain to establish funeral services in Uganda.
“She struggled to get land to establish a funeral home. Many of her neighbours did not want her to establish it in the neighbourhood, but she fought the battle and won,” Dr Kigozi said. 

Kampala City Traders Association (KACITA) spokesperson Issa Ssekitto said the news of the death of Mukiibi came when the business community had just lost their chairman Everest Kayondo, who succumbed to Covid-19 last week.
Mr Simon Peter Mukhama, the general secretary of Bible Society of Uganda (BSU), said Mukiibi’s death is a great loss to their society. 

She was identified in 2020 among the 10 Christian women, who have reached the peak of leadership. 
“On the awards day, Regina pledged and indeed became a life member of Bible Society of Uganda. She was among the selected few to attend BSU Annual General Meeting in April,” Mr Mukhama said.

Achievements
Awards
 Last year, the Bible Society of Uganda awarded Mukiibi and six other female Christians for breaking barriers in male dominated sector and ended up at the top. 
In 2009, Uganda Women Entrepreneur Limited recognised her company with a regional award in sustained growth.
The Uganda Investment Authority (UIA) recognised her funeral service company with the Best Woman Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 award.
In 2004, Uganda Women Entrepreneur Limited (UWEAL) awarded her with the Best Woman Entrepreneur of the year award.