The Tumusiime Mutebile Foundation (TMF), established by former Bank of Uganda (BoU) governor Emmanuel Tumusiime Mutebile, has initiated an environmental conservation project. Today, TMF donated approximately 10,000 fruit trees to five secondary schools in the Kigezi region to promote conservation and enhance students’ nutrition.
TMF, founded in 2016 after Mutebile received recognition from Makerere University, aims to promote private sector growth in Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa while addressing societal challenges like climate change in the global economy.
During the tree handover ceremony, Dr. Frank Michael Tweheyo, TMF’s local coordinator, urged the recipient schools to protect the trees from harm. The beneficiary schools included Karujanga SSS, Kigezi High School, Bukiinda SSS, Bubare SS, and Kishanje Highland School.
Dr. Tweheyo stated, “TMF has allocated approximately UGX 28 million for the purchase of these fruit trees and the procurement process. This project focuses on ensuring clean air for human consumption, environmental protection, and conservation, all while preserving Mutebile’s legacy.”
Furthermore, TMF’s mission includes providing transformative solutions to societal issues like climate change in a competitive global economy, with a special emphasis on promoting private sector growth in Uganda and Sub-Saharan Africa.
On the same day, Martin Akampurira, the head teacher of Kishanje Highland School, Roland Basheija, the estates manager for Kigezi High School, Pafura Twinomujuni, deputy head teacher of Bukinda SSS, and Peter Twongyeirwe, the head of agriculture at St Barnabas Karujanga, pledged their support to TMF’s tree planting initiative. They highlighted the potential benefits of planting forestry trees, such as eucalyptus trees, to protect school structures from wind damage and provide much-needed fuelwood for students’ meals.
Akampurira also suggested that if the government were to adopt TMF’s environmental conservation strategy, it could help reduce the occurrence of deadly landslides, erosion, and hailstorms.
In June 2023, TMF, led by Mutebile’s widow, Betty Mutebile, and the foundation’s Chief Executive Officer, Ednar Nyakaisiki, launched several programs, including the construction of a Shs1 billion dialysis unit at Rugarama Hospital in Kabale Town. TMF also announced community programs, such as a Shs120 million tree planting project aimed at environmental protection, targeting five pioneer secondary schools in the Kabale District, Mutebile’s ancestral village.
