Residence Kampala, Uganda Citizenship Uganda Known for Medicine, Management | Nationality Ugandan Years active 1996 – present | |
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Born 1973 (age 43–44) Galiraya, Kayunga District
Uganda Alma mater Mbarara University
(MBChB), (MMed in Internal Medicine) Occupation Physician, Consultant Physician, Medical Administrator | ||
Diana Kanzira Atwine MBChB, MMed, also Atwiine, is a Ugandan medical doctor and civil servant. She is the incumbent Permanent Secretary of the Uganda Ministry of Health. She was appointed to that position on 4 November 2016 by Yoweri Museveni, the president of Uganda. She replaced Dr. Asumani Lukwago, who was transferred as Permanent Secretary to the Education Services Commission.
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Background and education
Atwine was born in 1973, in Galiraya, a small community on the southern shores of Lake Kyoga, in Kayunga District, in the Central Region of Uganda. She is the daughter of Ernest Rujundira and Joy Kensheka Rujundira, being their third-born.
She attended Bweranyangi Girls' Senior Secondary School for her middle and high school (O-Level and A-Level) education. She was admitted to Mbarara University School of Medicine, where she pursued a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree. Following that, she specialized in Internal Medicine and was awarded a Master of Medicine degree by the same University.
Career
Dr Atwine worked for a brief period at St. Francis Hospital Nsambya, before she joined the Uganda Joint Clinical Research Centre (JCRC). From there she went to the State House of Uganda, where she was given the title of the President's Private Secretary in Charge of Medical Affairs. In that capacity, she served as one of President Museveni's personal physicians. In 2009, she was tasked to head what was officially known as the Medicine and Health Services Delivery Monitoring Unit, specifically tasked to investigate corruption in Uganda's Ministry of Health.
By June 2010, the unit that she headed had (a) uncovered an illegal racket by Ugandan and Kenyan officials to sell drugs across their common border (b) brought 78 cases to court (c) recovered stolen drugs worth more than Shs200 million (US$60,000) and (d) arrested at least 12 impostors, pretending to be qualified health workers, when not. Then in August 2010, she revealed nearly 300 ghost workers on the payroll of Mulago National Referral Hospital. In a reshuffle of permanent secretaries cabinet-wide, she was appointed to her current position, on 4 November 2016.
Personal
Diana Atwine is married and is the mother of three children.