President Museveni has appointed Crispus Kiyonga as the new Second Deputy Prime Minister, replacing Moses Ali in a major government reshuffle announced on Monday.
Kiyonga, who is the Member of Parliament for Bukonzo West County, was named in a new list of proposed government appointments for the positions of Vice President, Prime Minister, Cabinet Ministers, Ministers of State, and Senior Presidential Advisors.
The appointments were made under the powers granted to the President by the 1995 Constitution of Uganda, specifically Articles 108(1) and (2), 108A(1), 111(1), 113(1), and 114(1).
Kiyonga brings decades of political and administrative experience to the office, having served in several senior government positions since the National Resistance Movement came to power in 1986.
He previously served as Minister of Defence from 2006 to 2016 and retained the portfolio during cabinet reshuffles on February 16, 2009, May 27, 2011, and March 1, 2015, reflecting continued confidence in his leadership.
Before taking over the defence docket, Kiyonga served as Minister Without Portfolio in the Office of the President between 2005 and 2006.
Born on September 19, 1952, in Kasese District, Kiyonga attended Bwera Primary School from 1959 to 1966 before joining Nyakasura School between 1967 and 1970. He later studied at Kings College Budo from 1971 to 1972 for his advanced secondary education.
He pursued medical studies at Makerere University School of Medicine between 1973 and 1978, graduating with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree.
In 2004, he obtained a Master of Health Science in Population Dynamics from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health through a scholarship funded by the Fogarty International Center.
Kiyonga’s political career dates back to Uganda’s 1980 general elections, where he contested on the ticket of the Uganda Patriotic Movement and became the only candidate from the party to win a parliamentary seat.
He later joined the National Resistance Movement during the liberation struggle against the second Milton Obote government between 1981 and 1986.
Since 1986, Kiyonga has held several influential cabinet and non-cabinet positions. He briefly served as Minister for Cooperatives and Marketing before becoming Minister of Finance, a position he held until 1992.
During his tenure at the Finance Ministry, he was credited with the establishment of the Uganda Revenue Authority.
From 1994 to 1996, he served as Minister of Internal Affairs before being appointed Minister of Health from 1996 to 2001.
While serving at the Health Ministry, Kiyonga was credited with overseeing Uganda’s response to the Ebola outbreak in Gulu in 2000 and also served as Chairman of the Global Fund.
Between 2001 and 2006, he served as Minister Without Portfolio in the Office of the President and National Political Commissar before later transitioning to the Ministry of Defence, where he served for a decade.
Between 1992 and 1994, Kiyonga temporarily left government service to work as a consultant for the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
He later returned to active politics in 1994 after being elected to the Constituent Assembly that drafted Uganda’s 1995 Constitution.