Former executive secretary of the Uganda National Examinations Board (UNEB), Matthew Bukenya, has died at 90.
His death was confirmed by UNEB through their social media accounts.
“We will always cherish the lessons he imparted and the support he provided. His leadership was exemplary, guiding and inspiring. His legacy will continue to shine bright in our hearts and minds. May his soul rest in eternal peace.” – UNEB.
UNEB also acknowledged his guidance and mentorship to staff at the exams body. According to them, it meant the world.
Brief Bukenya bio
Having served as an accountant at the examinations body, Bukenya rose to fame when he was recalled from retirement in 1995. Aged 61 at the time, he was tasked with bringing back public trust to UNEB following years of rampant examination malpractice.
His recall from retirement meant the sacking of the then executive secretary, David Ongom. Ongom’s troubles stemmed from the leakage of primary and secondary examination papers that year. Bukenya would then serve in an acting capacity until January 2003 when he was formally appointed. Bukenya and his team managed to significantly reduce the leakages through introducing stringent measures to check the entire examinations process.
The entire pipeline, from setting, printing scripts, distributing, writing exams, and marking, was affected. Notably, they introduced the use of random numbers to schools during the exams. These would be different for every paper and hard to track down. Similarly, they stopped ranking best students according to districts to reduce unnecessary competition.
Over the years, as he grew older, Bukenya took a back seat, and his assistant, Dan Odong, took center stage. In 2016, Bukenya retired from the examinations body and was replaced by Dan Odong. He retired as the longest serving executive secretary of UNEB having served for a total of 21 years.
Throughout his tenure, students started referring to national exams as “Bukenya,” showing how much he had put into the service.
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