President Museveni has paid his last respects to the late Professor Alexander Mwa Odonga and saluted him for the tremendous contribution in upholding the medical profession in Uganda, according to a press statement from the Media Centre.
The President was on Monday night speaking at the vigil of the late Professor Mwa Odonga at the deceased’s home in Naguru in Kampala where Mr. Museveni offered his condolences and laid a wreath on the casket.
Prof Odonga, 96 passed on last week at Mulago Hospital in Kampala due to progressive heart failure.
Mwa was the first medical doctor in East and Central Africa to qualify as a specialist surgeon; he was also former Dean of Makerere Medical School and Dean of the School of Dentistry at the University of Nairobi in Kenya. He was also renowned for being the first person to write an English-Luo dictionary.
The president remembered and commended the deceased for saving the life of a visiting guest who succumbed to intestinal obstruction 15 years ago from Mulago hospital.
‘’I was very proud of him because he not only upheld the medical profession but also the reputation of Uganda,” remarked the President.
Professor Odonga was born in 1922 in Patiko in Gulu district. He was one of the first two Ugandan students to pass the British examination for fellowship of the royal college of surgeons. He is survived by six children and a widow.
