The Governor of Bank of Uganda (BoU) Prof Emmanuel Tumusiime-Mutebile has been admitted to Aga Khan Hospital, The Capital Times has learnt.
According to information from sources, the frail economist was admitted on Sunday after he collapsed on 31 December 2021. The source said Mutebile has been on and off duty due to diabetes related complications.
“The big man was put on dialyses. He was forced to ditch his favorite Whiskey because his kidneys had weakened and they couldn’t do their excretion job,” the source said.
The source said in September last year, Mutebile was admitted at Nakasero hospital for a full week. He was later discharged and continued to be monitored from his Kololo based home.
The 72 year old, whose contract was renewed on January 12th, 2021 for five years, has been at the helm of the central bank since 2001. He is the longest serving Chief Executive in the Bank of Uganda’s history. He is credited with many of the sound economic policies adopted by the Uganda government at the urging of the central bank during the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s.
Amidst Covid-19 pandemic Mutebile and his team have kept Uganda’s economy generally stable. Inflation has been contained within BOU target of 5% and the Shilling has remained stable against major currencies.
In tandem, the Governor has superintended over dubious activities which tainted the image of the Bank. It should be recalled that in February 2018 Mutebile made staff changes where he replaced former Executive Director of Supervision Justine Bagyenda with Dr. Tumubweine Twinemanzi.
President Yoweri Museveni later appointed a committee to investigate staff changes. Later it was established that Mutebile made some transfers and appointed Twinemanzi without consulting other members of the BoU board, a decision they said was wrong as the Governor had no powers to make changes single handedly.
Worse still, most of the staff head picked by the governor did not meet the qualifications and experience required for the jobs. For instance, Dr. Tumubweine didn’t have any experience in commercial banking.