Penninah Kabenge Aligawesa, Principal Sports Tutor Makerere University was elected the first-ever female Vice President of the Federation of International University Sports (FISU) for the period 2019-2023 at the FISU General Assembly held in Turin, Italy on November 15-16, 2019.
Penninah Kabenge beat strong opposition from Estonian Kairis Ulp who is a founding member of the European University Sports Association (EUSA) with an impressive resume in matters of university sports in her country and globally.
In the four-year term, Penninah Kabenge will serve alongside Brazil’s Cabral Luciano, Poland’s Dymalski Marian and Shen Zhen from China as Vice Presidents under First Vice President Leonz Eder. The Federation will be headed by Russian Professor Oleg Matytsin who was re-elected to the office of FISU President.
Penninah Kabenge beat strong opposition from Estonian Kairis Ulp who is a founding member of the European University Sports Association
Madam Penny, as she is popularly called by students at the Ivory Tower where she is Head of the Sports and Recreation department, is also currently Secretary General of the Federation of Africa University Sports (FASU) whose office is located at the university in Kampala after she was re-elected at the FASU General Assembly held in Entebbe, Uganda earlier this year.
She is also Association of Uganda University Sports (AUUS) President, a position she has held since 2004.
Penninah Kabenge has also served on Uganda National Olympics Committee as Secretary General among other instrumental roles in sports administration in Uganda and East Africa.
In her acceptance speech, the ever-joyous Kabenge acknowledged the mark she had made in the history of university sports as the first female Vice President of FISU, and further pledged to make sure that the voice of her colleagues is heard in the federation.
“I’m very happy, and really looking to make an impact,” Penninah Aligawesa Kabenge said.
The four-year team in which the executive committee was elected will cover the federation’s inter-university tournaments known as Universiades in 2021 in Lucerne, Switzerland and Chengdu, China and in 2023 in Lake Placid, USA and Yekaterinburg, Russia.
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