Makerere University recently honoured former Bank of Uganda Secretary, Dr Joshua Baitwa Mugyenyi with a memorial lecture. Kenya's Medical Services minister and former guild president Prof Peter Anyang' Nyong'o, was on hand to deliver the first memorial lecture, reliving their experiences at Makerere between 1968 and 1971. While Anyang' Nyong'o was guild president, Mugyenyi was his deputy and the two, along with the late ambassador Daudi Taliwaku started the famous public lectures in the main hall, which drew in several academics and politicians of the time.

The debates, mostly about African politics, later died out in the 1970s as political strife took hold in Uganda and academics fled into exile. Makerere recently relaunched the Africa series of lectures and invited Anyang' Nyong'o to deliver the first one in December 2011, in which he discussed the consequences of former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere's efforts at women emancipation in Africa.

However, when Mugyenyi's family came calling for a series of memorial lectures to honour the 11th anniversary of his death, Anyang' Nyong'o said he could not resist and flew in with his wife to pay homage to his contemporary. The event saw the establishment of the Dr Joshua Baitwa Mugyenyi Foundation.