Engineering, Art & Tech
Prof. Henry Alinaitwe outgoing Principal College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) hands over office
Prof. Henry Alinatwe handed over the office of the Principal College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT) to Assoc. Prof. Moses Musinguzi after a ten-year tenure.
Similarly, Dr. Venny Nakazibwe, who has served in the position of Deputy Principal for two terms also handed over office to Assoc. Prof. Kizito Maria Kasule.
The handover ceremony was held in the CEDAT Boardroom on Friday 29th September 2023 and was witnessed among others by Deans and heads of departments including Assoc. Prof. Dorothy Okello from School of Engineering, Assoc. Prof. Anthony Gidudu, School of the Built Environment, Dr. Lydia Mazzi, Head Department of Geomatics and Land Management, Dr. Nathan Kibwami, Head Construction Economics and Management, Dr. Abubaker Matovu Wasswa, Electrical and Computer engineering, Dr. Moses Matovu from Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Dr. Ronald Mpindi Kibudde from Industrial Arts and applied Design.
The Administrative staff that witnessed the hand over included Mr. Luwuliza Aggrey from Internal Audit, Mrs. Hellen Ssali, the College Registrar, Mrs. Apolot Opolot Josephine, the Principal Human Resource officer, and the College Bursar Mr. Ronald Sambwa.
While handing over the office to his successor, Prof. Henry Alinaitwe said he served a two term tenure as the head of the college effective 2nd January 2014, a period of ten years and three months, albeit with some intermittent periods of acting appointment.
‘I have served as Principal for ten years and three months. It has been an enriching experience for me to serve Makerere University. I owe the success and achievements made to the cooperation of the members of staff and students at CEDAT’, said Prof. Alinaitwe while addressing a number of staff that witnessed the handover ceremony.
Further, he commended the support rendered to him by the Vice Chancellor and the central administration as a whole, the development partners, Government Ministries and the private sector, citing the World Bank that funded the Africa Centers of Excellence and the Presidential Initiative as examples.
He highlighted some of his roles as the Chief Administrative, Academic and Financial officer that included ensuring implementation of the University policies. He said as Principal he was responsible for the proper implementation of academic programs, promotion of research and innovation as well as budget management and resource mobilization among many others.
In an elaborate hand over report, Prof. Henry Alinaitwe highlighted the key administrative units of the college that included the centres, the three Schools and the various programs offered, namely School of Engineering, School of the Built Environment, and the Margaret Trowel School of Industrial and Fine Art. Also highlighted were the staff and students at the College, the assets, office facilities and equipment in the office of the Principal and the basic and applied research projects ongoing.
The incoming Principal was also informed of the Budget and College finances noting the challenge of the budget ceilings remaining constant despite the increase in commodity prices and other costs.
Concerning the various laws, policies and regulations governing the activities at the University, Prof. Alinaitwe urged the incoming leaders to get acquainted to laws and regulations as contained in the Constitution of Uganda, the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, the Public Finance Management Act, The national Audit Act and the National Development plan..
While emphasizing the need for proper planning for the College, Prof. Alinaitwe urged the new leaders to adhere to the University and College Strategic Plans that are in line with the National Development plan. He said it was also a requirement for the Principal to ensure that quarterly and Annual Reports are submitted to the University management.
He informed the incoming Principal that it will be his duty to chair a number of meetings including the Academic and Administrative Board meetings that are charged with the administration of academic activities and administrative support services respectively.
In the area of collaboration and networks that the college in engaged in. Prof. Alinaitwe said there were a number of memorandums of Understanding between CEDAT and other Institutions and encouraged the incoming Principal to regularly make reference to them when dealing with the various institutions. He said starting with 2022, all memorandums of understanding were required to be cleared by the Solicitor General, and signed by the Vice Chancellor.
In some of the recommendations made by the outgoing leadership, the incoming team was asked to reinstitute the resource mobilization and research grants office and to encourage staff to participate more in grant writing. He charged them to make close follow up of the progress of post graduate students in order to ensure timely completion of programs and to aim at enrolling more graduate students up to 30% in the near future. As a new team, they were also encouraged to lobby for increased funding to cater for the increasing teaching and laboratory requirements.
The incoming Principal Assoc. Prof. Moses Musinguzi extended his appreciation to the outgoing College leadership, Prof. Henry Alinaitwe and Dr. Venny Nakazibwe, the Principal and Deputy Principal respectively for the great input they made in the management and leadership of the college. He said he was honored to be in the position of Principal and appreciated the University Council and management, senate and the Chancellor for the opportunity to serve.
‘I thank all CEDAT staff who gave me encouragement, motivation and support to offer my candidature’, he said and expressed his commitment to uphold the CEDAT legacy and more so look for opportunities to make it even better.
He said the disciplines taught at CEDAT constantly evolve, demand adaptability and a forward thinking approach. We need to put CEDAT at the forefront of Innovation and progress.
He said his task in the first month as Principal will be to gain a deeper understanding of each unit of the College at the level of Departments, research centres, research groups and other units in order to gain an appreciation of the College problems and in line with the recommendations from the outgoing Principal work towards redressing them.
He congratulated his Deputy Principal Dr. Kizito Maria Kasule for taking up the office and pledged to have a cordial working relationship with him and the rest of the team in the effort to uplift the college, the university and the nation as a whole.
The incoming Principal and Deputy Principal will serve a four-year term.
Engineering, Art & Tech
Makerere & Partners Kick Off FLOWERS Project to Turn Restaurant Waste into a Regenerative Resource
Makerere University on 10th September 2026 hosted partners and government stakeholders at Kampala Fairway Hotel for the official high-level kick-off meeting of the Facilitating Local Organic Waste Exchange for Regenerative Systems (FLOWERS) Project. The two-year research initiative (2026–2028) is funded by the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC) and implemented by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich), the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag), Makerere University, End Plastic Pollution and Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA).
The morning opening ceremony was presided over by the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic Affairs), Prof. Sarah N. Ssali, who was represented by the Director of Research, Innovations and Partnerships (DRIP), Prof. Robert Wamala. Prof. Ssali later attended the afternoon proceedings and officially closed the kick-off meeting.
Research That Treats Waste as a Resource
In the opening remarks delivered on her behalf by Prof. Wamala, Prof. Ssali noted that the rapid growth of the food-service sector in many sub-Saharan African cities has concentrated large volumes of food waste in urban areas. When this waste is poorly managed, she said, it drives pollution and nutrient loss while leaving unused an opportunity to rebuild soil fertility and support more circular food systems.
“Rather than viewing restaurant organic waste simply as a disposal problem, the project seeks to examine how it can become a resource within a regenerative system, returning nutrients to agricultural production through appropriate mechanisms for recycling and reuse,” the Deputy Vice Chancellor stated.
She described FLOWERS as timely for Kampala, where population growth, changing consumption and expansion of restaurants and food vendors are placing new pressure on municipal waste systems. She urged the team to produce evidence that can inform policy, practice and investment, and to keep a clear line of sight from research excellence to societal impact, including relevance to Sustainable Development Goal 12 on Responsible Consumption and Production.
Prof. Ssali further encouraged partners to clarify roles, engage actors along the food-waste value chain, and ask from the outset what institutional arrangements, incentives and business models would be required if a tested intervention is to move beyond the pilot.
A Partnership Anchored at CEDAT
Makerere’s Local Principal Investigator is Assoc. Prof. Charles B. Niwagaba from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Design, Art and Technology (CEDAT). In a session on evidence-to-policy lessons from earlier work, he argued that municipal solid waste management is too large a challenge for any single institution and that the city itself should be treated as a living laboratory—generating knowledge through research, students and laboratories; piloting innovations; and supporting KCCA to institutionalise what works.
The project overview was presented by Dr. Daniela Peguero, with next steps outlined by Gioia Francesca of the international team. Camille Tahon delivered welcome remarks on behalf of CCAC. The programme also featured presentations from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA) on the Strategy of Organic Waste developed under the SOWU project; Mr. Julius Mughuma Masereka of the Ministry of Local Government on national waste-management policy; and Dr. Sarah K. Zalwango of KCCA on the current status and future plans for solid waste management in Kampala.
What FLOWERS Will Do in Kampala
FLOWERS addresses a documented gap: despite informal systems that already move some restaurant leftovers and peelings to farms, there is limited empirical evidence on how food waste actually flows in African cities, and whether a targeted supply-chain intervention can increase recycling and reuse.
The Uganda phase of work will: map and analyse urban food-waste flows in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area; and experimentally assess an intervention designed to redirect a greater share of source-separated restaurant waste to farmers, tracking both mass and financial flows along the chain.
Methods to be deployed include panel surveys of restaurant managers, farmers and waste traders; two intensive waste-measurement campaigns supported by trained restaurant staff; six months of GPS tracking on waste traders’ bicycles; and a staggered, randomised matching of restaurants with traders. Makerere will contribute to three of the project’s four work packages, including waste, financial and carbon-balance mapping; market assessment of products from anaerobic digestion, composting and black soldier fly (BSF) treatment; and national dissemination.
Assoc. Prof. Niwagaba told partners that Makerere’s immediate tasks include ethical approval, support to map licensed restaurants, recruitment and training of enumerators, and close coordination with ETH doctoral researchers. Field data collection is planned to run from September to December 2026.
Informal Traders, Technology and Policy Uptake
An afternoon session by Piotr Barczak examined waste transformation through black soldier fly farming as a circular-economy option. A panel on integration of informal waste traders in restaurant waste exchange brought together the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Ministry of Local Government, KCCA as well as private operators MTSL Energies and End Plastic Pollution.
The panel reflected a central design choice of FLOWERS: not to replace an existing informal chain, but to understand it, strengthen it where it works, and generate evidence that national and city authorities can use. Project documents note that KCCA, municipalities in the Greater Kampala Metropolitan Area, NEMA, the Ministry of Local Government and the Ministry of Water and Environment already recognise booking of restaurant food waste as a low-emission reuse strategy.
The research is intended to give that recognition an empirical base—waste-flow and financial-flow maps, a methane balance, and results from a field experiment rather than anecdote.
Prof. Wamala, whose Directorate coordinates research partnerships across the University, framed the kick-off as consistent with Makerere’s mission to generate knowledge for societal transformation. Makerere, he indicated, would contribute research capacity, students, innovation platforms and knowledge translation and transfer power so that findings do not remain in publications alone.
From Kick-off to Implementation
Assoc. Prof. Niwagaba at the conclusion of deliberations summarised the next steps: finalise institutional support letters required for ethics review, update restaurant and farmer sampling frames with KCCA, train field teams, and keep policy actors engaged throughout data collection rather than only at dissemination.
In closing, Prof. Ssali commended CCAC for funding the project and thanked ETH Zürich, Eawag, End Plastic Pollution, KCCA, NEMA, the Ministry of Local Government and participating private and civil-society actors for a collaboration that treats Kampala’s restaurant waste not merely as a municipal burden, but as a nutrient stream that can support farms, livelihoods and cleaner air.
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