Who is Francis Mwijukye? Flash Uganda Media looks at his biography, age, wife, family, tribe, relationship with Linus Ninsiima Mwijukye, the late Tibingana Zonobio and Ms Virginia Kobuyonjo, Kizza Besigye, Forum for Democratic Change (FDC), early life and education of the current Buhweju County Member of Parliament (MP) in Uganda.
Francis Mwijukye is a politician, researcher and human rights advocate from Uganda.
He is the representative for Buhweju County in the 11th Ugandan Parliament and a staunch FDC member. Francis Mwijukye is also a representative on the Parliament’s Human Rights Committee.
Early life and Education
Francis Mwijukye was born on 4th April 1983 in Bwoga village, Rwengwe Sub County, Buhweju District, Ankole region in Western Uganda to the late Tibingana Zonobio who passed on in June 2019 and Ms Virginia Kobuyonjo.
Mwijukye, the second child in a family of nine, spent his childhood with his siblings huddled around a bonfire close to his parents’ mud and wattle home, listening to folk tales, rearing his father’s cattle in the bushes and swimming in roaring waters.
He is married to Linus Ninsiima Mwijukye. They met at a rally in Bushenyi in 2012 and currently have two children. Their firstborn son is Joseph Mandela.
To attend a better school, he switched schools three times during his primary schooling. He attended Bwoga Primary School from primary one to three. He then switched to Nyabwina model primary school in Sheema where he had to walk for 15 kilometres to and fro. Here he attended Primary four and five.
Eventually, Mwijukye enrolled in St. Mukasa Preparatory Seminary in Mushanga, where he finished his primary education.
He went to St. Joseph Vocational School for his Uganda Certificate of Education and Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education.
While attending St. Joseph’s Vocational School, Mwijukye changed his mind from wanting to be a priest to a lawyer. However, he did not qualify for Government sponsorship and he instead enrolled at Mbarara University (MUST) where he graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Development Studies.
Career and Professional Work Experience
Francis Mwijukye began his political career while still a student as the district youth councillor. While at Mbarara University, Mwijukye spearheaded a demonstration on campus, which led to the construction of the faculty of development studies building.
“We used to study at a medical facility, and one day they instructed us to go to the mess because they had an exam. We had to find a place under a tree because it was nearly lunchtime and people were leaving for lunch. We cannot pay Shs 1.5 million and study outside, I argued. We then phoned in journalists, went and gathered our tree branches, and began moving around campus,” he said.
“That building’s construction began the following month, and we were given a place to live.”
When Dr Kizza Besigye began to challenge the status quo in 2001, Mwijukye rapidly took to his message. Oddo Tayebwa, a former Bushenyi MP, introduced him to Col. Kizza Besigye, and since then, he has been one of the general’s closest confidants.
Since then, Mwijukye has been actively involved in politics, and Besigye’s defeat in the general elections of 2001 did not deter him. Francis Mwijukye served as Dr Kizza Besigye’s assistant while he was president of the FDC and a candidate for the presidency.
Mwijukye was a member of the squad that met Besigye at the airport in 2006 when he returned from South Africa. From that point on, he began his time in jail facilities until the 2016 general elections, when he was elected as the Buhweju district MP in the 10th parliament.
As a political activist, he suffered injuries during demonstrations, spent more than 60 times in jail over fifteen years, was accused of treason, interfered with police work, and many other offences.
He started contesting to be a member of parliament for Buhweju District on the FDC ticket in 2006 and lost to Deus Bikwatsizehi (deceased). In 2011, he ran again for the MP position, but Mr Ephraim Biraro of the NRM defeated him.
In 2016, on his third attempt, he finally overcame Mr Biraro and became MP-elect which he attributes to having gotten married to a certain extent.
He was chosen to serve as the FDC’s parliamentary commissioner in 2019. This was after waiting for about 9 months following his appointment in August 2018 by FDC President Patrick Amuriat.
He was nominated by the opposition deputy whip Harold Muhindo and went through unopposed in Parliament. Francis Mwijukye also serves as Shadow Minister for Trade & Industry.
Achievements and Awards
Francis Mwijukye is an excellent researcher and writer who has published several of his articles on platforms like Monitor which has over 200 of his pieces.
He is also the third member of the FDC party to originate from Ankole since the party’s founding; the others being Margaret Kiboijana, a woman MP from Ibanda, and Hon. Oddo Tayebwa, a former legislator from Ishaka Municipality.
According to Mr Francis Mwijukye, the only places in the Buhweju District with electricity before his election as MP were the Nyakishana, Burere, and Akajani sub-counties and Nsiika Town Council. As a result of his lobbying efforts, electricity is now available in all 14 of the district’s sub-counties.
He pushed for the renovation and building of several primary schools, including Karungu, Nyarubona, Musheshe, Kamugati, and Kangara.
According to Mr Mwijukye, Buhweju received just Shs241 million from the Uganda Road Fund before he was elected as an MP, but now the district is receiving Shs490 million.
Mwijukye has established himself as one of the most outspoken and knowledgeable MPs throughout his years in parliament, with a strong stance against government corruption. He is a commissioner of Parliament as well as a member of the committee on East African Community Affairs.
Controversies
Francis Mwijukye and Gen. Kahinda Otafiire were at odds, and the minister of justice made a beating threat against the MP after claiming Otafiire has a history of snatching public land.
In October 2019, after the minister was asked to address allegations that he had taken land belonging to the government stock farm in Njeru, Buikwe, a contentious debate was issued before Parliament.
Mwijukye claimed that Otafiire had seized government land when he served in the capacity of Minister of Lands, Housing, and Urban Development. He continued to say that the current claims were not shocking.
Otafiire dared Mwijukye to repeat what he had stated on the floor outside Parliament and see what would happen.
There were efforts to poison the Hon. Francis in October 2020. During a lunch meal with members of his constituency, an unnamed person with ulterior purposes allegedly poisoned his food.
He was hospitalised and barely made it. He also escaped eating poison while running for office in his district during the general elections in 2021.
On August 22, 2021, Mwijukye was involved in a tragic accident on the Mpigi-Masaka highway where two people were pronounced dead at the scene.
Around six o’clock in the evening, at Mbizzinya-Kyengera Village near Buwama Town in the Mpigi district, Mwijukye’s car, a Land Cruiser Prado with the personalised licence plate ‘MP WAITU,’ ran over two pedestrians and killed them. It also injured a motorcycle rider in the process.
Mwijukye was in the car with three other people, including his wife, who was hospitalised after suffering minor wounds. Before police arrived on the scene to save them, the legislator is said to have escaped public violence by some irate locals who accused the MP of reckless driving.
The accident was blamed on over-speeding by MP Mwijukye’s driver, James Barekye, who was detained by police, according to Ms Lydia Tumushabe, the spokeswoman for the Katonga Regional Police.
In May 2020, Mwijukye and Charles Ngabirano the Rwampara County MP had also survived an accident after a talk show on Radio West where the Land cruiser they were travelling in collided with a Toyota Wish near Agip Motel in Mbarara town.
Francis Mwijukye disagreed with President Yoweri Museveni‘s pledge to pay biology instructors 4 million shillings and history instructors 700,000 shillings in 2021.
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