8 interesting facts you didn’t know about Lucy Nakyobe, the Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet

Lucy Nakyobe is the current Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet.

She was appointed to the position on 15 July, 2021 by President Yoweri Museveni as he reshuffled Permanent Secretaries.

Nakyobe replaced John Mitala and she is deputized by Deborah Katuramu.

Here are the things you didn’t know about Nakyobe:

1.Before being appointed Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet, Nakyobe was comptroller of the State House of Uganda since 2010 when she took over office from Richard Muhinda. As the State House comptroller, she was the head of administration in State House and her duties included ensuring proper coordination and organisation of all operations and activities in State House, tendering advice to the President in respect of the business, general administration and policy issues, ensuring implementation of Government business and also ensuring proper expenditure of public funds in accordance with laid down Government accounting procedures.

2.Before becoming the State House comptroller, Ms. Nakyobe worked in the accounts department of the State House as an Undersecretary of Finance and administration. Here, she was responsible for preparation of annual policy statements, budget framework, budget estimates, work plans and procurement plan. She was also responsible for logistics management and procurement, responsible for finance and administration for the Office of the Vice President as well as also supervising and mentoring lower staff.

3.From 1989 to 1990 Ms. Nakyobe worked as a research assistant on the behavioural risk studies among Baganda women under Case Western Reserve University/Makerere University collaborative research project and from 1990- 1991 where she was the Assistant Secretary of the Environment Protection department.

4.Ms. Nakyobe has served as an assistant secretary in various departments of the State House and these include: Energy and Natural Resources department from 1991-1992, Tourism and Wild Life from 1993-1994, Office of the Vice President from 1994-95 and the State House from1995-1998.

5.In 1990, she graduated from Makerere University with a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences, she later in 1995 graduated with a PGD from Uganda Management Institute under Makerere University. She also obtained a masters degree in Public Administration and Management from Makerere University in 1999.

6.Ms. Nakyobe has also continued to widen her academic knowledge by studying a variety of other short courses from different institutions. In 1991 she studied Law for Administrative Officers in May and in December that year, pursued a short course on Data management.

7.In June 2009, she pursued a course on Leadership and Change management- Uganda-Ontario Partnership, and attended the Good Governance program in June 2009. She has also pursued courses on Indicators for Policy management- MDGS and Statistical Literacy- May 2007, Leadership and team building Course- British Council, March 2007, Coaching and mentoring- British Council- October 2006, Basic Cadre Development Course, National leadership Institute, Kyankwazi- May 2003, Specification Writing, June 2003, Contract management- August 2003, Advance leadership skills for women, Johannesburg, August 2002, Specification, preparation and writing, May 2002 and in June 2002 a course on Bid preparation and tender evaluation among others.

8.Ms. Nakyobe has also contributed to publications including ; McGrath JW, Rwabukwali CB, Schumann DA, Pearson-Marks J, Nakayiwa, Namande B, Nakyobe L, Mukasa R. Anthropology and AIDS: the cultural context of sexual risk behaviour among urban Baganda women in Kampala Uganda, Social Science and Medicine. 1993 Feb;36(4):429-39, Janet W. McGrath, Debra A. Schumann, Johmann, Jonnie Pearson-Marks, Charles B. Rwabukwali, Rebecca Mukasa, Barbara Namande, Sylvia Nakayiwa, Lucy Nakyobe Cultural Determinants of Sexual Risk Behavior for AIDS among Baganda Women Medical Anthropology Quarterly, New Series, Vol.6,No.2 (Jun., 1992), pp. 153-161, Rwabukwali, Charles B among others.