Dokolo Woman Member of Parliament Cecilia Ogwal is dead.
The Speaker of Parliament, Ms Anita Among, announced the death of Ogwal today morning.
Ogwal, 77, who has been MP since 1996, succumbed to cancer in India.
Ogwal was born on June 12, 1946, in Dokolo District, Northern Uganda, and rose to prominence as a career woman, MP and business woman.
Her academic journey took her to the University of Nairobi, where she earned a Bachelor of Commerce degree in 1970 and she also held a Certificate in Human Resources Management from the Uganda Management Institute as well as qualifications from Singapore and Australia.
She served as the Liaison Officer for Returning Ugandan Refugees at the Uganda Embassy in Kenya (1979-1980), after which she worked as Operations Manager at the Uganda Advisory Board of Trade (1980-1981).
She also played a pivotal role as one of the founders of Housing Finance Bank in 1982 and later chaired the Uganda Development Bank from 1981 to 1986.
Entering the political arena, Cecilia became the Acting Secretary General of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) from 1985 to 1992.
The fallen politician was part of the Constituent Assembly which drafted the 1995 Constitution.
A loyal member of the UPC, she transitioned to the Forum for Democratic Change party, winning the Women’s Representative seat for Dokolo District in 2011.
Owagal lost her Lira Municipality seat to Jimmy Akena during the 2006 parliamentary elections but later in 2011, she won the Women’s Representative seat for Dokolo District on the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party ticket.
In her personal life, Cecilia Ogwal was a loving wife to Lameck Ogwal and a mother of seven natural children alongside numerous adopted ones.
Interestingly, the lady who came to be known as “The Iron Lady”, won the first “Miss Uganda” contest at the age of 23 in 1969, adding a touch of glamour to her multifaceted life.
