KIU, Western Campus – If there is someone who will be probably the proudest at this Saturday’s 26th Graduation Ceremony for KIU, it must be Francis Okello.

The former MP School of Allied Health Sciences (SAHS) and Finance Minister in the KIU Western Campus Guild Union literally calls achieving his degree as “blood and sweat”.

“I have gone through so many personal challenges which rocked my life and threatened to derail me academically. So, I can say I have achieved this degree through blood and sweat,” Okello, who will be graduating with a Bachelors Degree in Clinical Medicine and Community Health, says.

“As if that was not enough, COVID-19 came in and took away two years of my academic period of study,” he adds.

He however says that despite the challenges, his studying was not interrupted because of KIU’s formidable e-learning system, which kept him academically astute during the lockdown.

When President Yoweri Museveni announced a lockdown following the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, KIU immediately rolled out its e-learning program to keep students in tandem with their studies.

Despite the pains, Okello says he is very happy and proud to be a graduand because it has always been his dream to be a doctor.

And the mentally tough Okello confides that the challenges he went through will not deter him from adding onto his academic credentials, “come what may”, as he terms it.

He says he plans to use his degree to help out improve the health sector in his home district of Lira.

“I love my home district very much and that is why every time I got my holidays, I would go back home so that I can stay in touch with my people and their challenges. That is why I will use the knowledge I have acquired here to help them,” he reveals.

Okello says KIU Western Campus in particular and Ishaka Town in general will forever be in his heart and he will always regard it as his second home.

He advises fellow graduands to not relax now that they have graduated but hit the ground running.

“I advise them not to relax and start enjoying life and throwing parties because time waits for no man,” advises Okello.

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