Bese Ogena Tuku-Neko (Eng) is President & CEO at Engineers in Green Actions-Africa, a Non-Governmental Organisation, started in Gulu, Uganda and is devoted to Climate Change mitigation, Adaptation and Research in Africa. Tuku-Neko is widely acclaimed by circles of friends and professional persons for his great leadership, hopes, and extensive contribution, experience in humanitarian interventions in the fields of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Green Construction in the Internally Displaced People’s Camps/villages during war or insurgencies in Northern Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia and beyond. He is certified PRINCE2 Practitioner, PRINCE2 Agile in project management by Peoplecert & Axelos UK .He is also an accredited LEED Green Associate by the US Green Building Council and now pursuing LEED AP BD+C in green building.
From 2021 to 2023, Ogena Bese Tuku-Neko served as Project Manager -Infrastructure with Turner and Townsend-UK Ltd in Uganda in a US$ 110.04 million for Uganda’s Ministry of Water and Environment Project of water supply and irrigation on the consultant’s side helping the main contractor Nexus Green UK Ltd. His major work was project management. l. Currently, he also serves as Board member of NUWOCSI (Northern Uganda Women & Children Support Initiative) a 501(C3) Organisation focused in poverty eradication among women and their children through bee keeping, diary goats and quilts making. From 2007 to 2008, Tuku-Neko served as the Technical Project Officer/Engineer for Caritas Gulu in partnership with the Catholic Relief Services (CRS)-Uganda under the project of Global Water Initiative (GWI) supported by Warren Buffet Foundation ,USA. His assignments were mainly borehole drillings, constructions and representation at Government, NGO cluster/sector meetings with extensive field trips in Uganda and Ethiopia.
Tuku-Neko served as an Engineering Assistant at the Schools for Schools (S4S) Program of Invisible Children,Inc from May to July 2007 where helped in preparation of Bills of Quantities (BoQs), Construction supervision/ rehabilitation of selected Secondary School Infrastructures facilities affected by the war/insurgency In Northern Uganda before joining the team at Warren Buffet’s Global Water Initiative (GWI) Project.
From late 2005 to 2006, Tuku-Neko served as Technical Project Officer/Engineer with Caritas Gulu Archdiocese partnering with Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in a Water , Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Project with support from Trocaire and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). His assignments here involved hydro geophysical surveys, design and installation of motorized/gravity water supply systems in small Town Centres like Keyo and Coo -Pee IDP Camps in Amuru and Nwoya Districts among other places. Others included reports writing, supervision of contractors, water quality analysis and preparation of Tender/bid documents, subsequent procurements and software activities like the implementation of PHAST methodologies.
In Feb.2006, Tuku-Neko worked for the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for International Affairs , a US organisation based out of Washington DC for strengthening Democratic Institutions. Here, he was responsible for planning, organizing Public Parliamentarian Dialogues in Pabbo and Bobbi between the communities and their Members of Parliaments or elected officials.
Tuku-Neko’s first opportunity in the WASH sector was Internship / training with Action Against Hunger (ACF)/Action Contre la Faim, an International Organisation where he was involved in provision of access to clean Water and Sanitation in IDP Camps and communities in Northern Uganda in 2005.He was involved among other activities ,in solar technology for extraction of water from production wells. He was also a student Intern/Trainee with ROKO Construction Ltd, a big Construction company in Africa based in Uganda,Rwanda in 2003 while he was an Engineering Student at UTC- Lira.. He was involved in major areas of construction of the multi-billion Shoprite/Game Store in Kampala from foundations, steel works, masonry, columns, concrete technology etc.
Through his volunteer efforts, Tuku-Neko has extensively deposited relevance of hopes in the hearts of many disadvantaged children and adults in Northern Uganda . He volunteered for many Organisations but not limited to the African Promise Foundation (APF), World Food Program(WFP),WACPI and Norwegian Refugee Council(NRC), where he helped in distribution of food rations of pulses, cereals ,corn ,oil, etc in the IDP Camps in Northern Uganda in 2002. He risked his life many times since they had to sometimes spend the nights in the bushes due to a leaked ambush set up by LRA rebels who wanted to raid or fight for the same WFP food rations for the IDPs.
In the Rotary fraternity, at Gulu Rotary Club then(D9211), Bese Ogena Tuku-Neko was a Board member, Director for New Generations /Youth Services and Member of Service Projects Committee and The Rotary Foundation (TRF) Committee for 2013/14. He became the Charter/first President (2003/4) of the Rotaract Club of Uganda Technical College-Lira, dropping the first seed of Rotary in Lira District by then. In 2005, he was elected the first President of the then Provisional Rotaract Club of Gulu Community. In 2011, while studying in England-UK, he volunteered on the Wasrag’s Water Technology Team (WWTT) alongside other professional members around the world led by Professor John Dracup- University of California ,Berkeley. As a Rotaractor, he was actively volunteering in projects of Polio Immunisations, Tree planting, Wheel chairs for PWDs , Construction and Water, Sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). He joined the Rotary Fraternity ,as an Interactor while a secondary (high) school student from St. Joseph’s College-Layibi-Gulu and was inducted a Rotarian from the Karuma bushes (T-Junction) by District Governor-D9211, Emmanuel Katongole, in May 2013. Tuku-Neko has been awarded one of highest humanitarian service awards called Paul Harris Fellow (PHF) Award in recognition of his tangible and significant assistance in furtherance of better understanding and friendly relations among peoples of the world by US and Canadian Rotarians in 2010 and was decorated by the then District Governor Steven Mwanje in the function at Acoli Inn Hotel. Tuku-Neko has attended the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) and 3 District Conferences & Assembly (DCA). As an active former Rotaractor, he was twice nominated a GSE participant to Malmo-Sweden and New York-USA (D7090)
In his local Community in Gulu District, Mr. Bese got involved in leadership to push for better service delivery and was elected Chairman Gulu Reliable Youth Group in early 2002 where he practically involved fellow Youth in tree planting and small business developments. Later in 2002, in a fiercely competitive election, he won another election to become the Youth Councilor for Pece Division- Gulu Municipality. Even though news had circulated that he was still a Secondary (high) School student, his fellow Councilors again elected him Deputy Speaker of the Council (Parliament) in charge of presiding over debates/deliberations due to his objective eloquence .In 2006, Mr.Tuku Neko campaigned to become a Youth Member of Parliament to represent Northern Uganda in the Parliament of the Republic of Uganda but fell short of enough votes required to be in the August house. In 2003, while an Engineering student in Uganda Technical College –Lira, Mr. Ocaya Bese took the challenge to become the Guild Presidential Candidate in a fiercely contested election in the College History but fell short of only two votes to take Office as President and students re-named him the Ambassador of Hopes. He then automatically became the Leader of Opposition in the College and pushed for educational reforms by engaging the Guild Government, College Principal /Management and various groups in peaceful protests and productive meetings for change.
Tuku-Neko battled poverty through his entrepreneurship in the hard times of the War torn Northern Uganda. He worked innovatively hard alongside other commitments from 2007 as Founder and MD of Frontline Engineering & Investments Ltd, a Water and Construction Company. In 2013, he formed Frontline Global Consultants Ltd, a Company which consults in Environmental/Civil Engineering. In same year(2013), he also formed Frontline Africa Safaris Ltd, a tour company dealing in Car hires, Hotel booking, Transportation, Community tourism, Safaris, Gorilla tracking, Visa consultation in Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and Tanzania. Again in same year, he formed a corporate umbrella Company called Frontline Group7 Ltd to brand, promote, advise and implement Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) for the above named Companies.
Born in Lapeta Village, Unyama S/C , Aswa County in Gulu City’s Pece-Laroo Division of Northern Uganda, Tuku-Neko received his early childhood education starting from a village school of Pakwelo Primary School in Unyama. Due to the escalated insurgency/war between Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels led by Joseph Kony , he had to change to several Primary Schools from Pakwelo to; Highland, Pece Madhvani, Gulu Prison and finally sat for his PLE at Gulu Public P/S where he cried for two(2)months to be bought his first pair of shoes when he saw other school kids smarter in shoes as they ridiculed him as ‘‘poor, first timer in Town’’. The many changes of School depended on the one which is less susceptible to attacks/abductions by LRA rebels. As children, the likes of Mr. Tuku-Neko could not escape sleeping in the bushes at night, commuting to town centers for the night for safety, going hungry or if lucky, feeding on one meal per day and trauma from those people whose noses, lips, arms, chin were painfully cut off or a glance at dead people hacked to death by machetes/pangas, axe, hummer, big stones etc. These grave, painful childhood challenges made him one of the most resilient, cautious young men of their time from Northern Uganda.
For his Secondary (O level) Education, Mr. Ocaya went to St. Joseph’s College Layibi- Gulu (LAYSCO), where they sometimes hid in the classroom ceiling boards to avoid abduction/killings by LRA rebels . While in this school, Bese mounted a self styled campaign characterised by verbal artilleries and dance among others to claim one of the most sought after and prestigious Post of Furniture Captain in the Prefectorate (Student Government of 1998). He was also member of World Vision Students’ Association (WOVSA), Red Cross Society, Class UNSA (Uganda National Student’s Association) Representative(S.1) and prominent Debater trained by Mr. Odida Patrick Luwita, the then Chairman of Debating Club from HSC . For Advanced level Secondary (high) School education, Mr. Bese went to Uganda Martyrs SS Namugongo (2000), Kampala where he continued membership of the Interact Club, Debating Club and he was a notable ,leading and controversial discussant of the General Paper for both Arts and Science students in 2001 in various discussion fora.
Mr. Bese went to Uganda Technical College –Lira to study Diploma in Civil Engineering (2004) and later his Bsc. in Civil Engineering from Washington International University (2010) and University of Surrey, Guildford UK, where he pursued his Postgraduate Studies in Water and Environmental Engineering (2012). Tuku-Neko is a Climate Leader (Climate reality Corp) trained by former US Vice President Al Gore and other renowned Climate Scientists in Chicago, IL,US in Aug.2013.
Mr. Ocaya Bese is an Author, Story teller, Speaker in Water, Sanitation & Hygiene , Construction, Environment, Business, and Social issues. He is socially blessed and well travelled globally: China, UAE, Germany, Spain, France, Belgium, USA, UK, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Eritrea ,Sudan and The Netherlands. In his free time, he is active in aerobics, yoga, dance, swimming , jogging,hiking and camping. Caution: His enthusiasm, hopes and drive to get things done can be contagious!
Email: engineersgaa@gmail.com Tel: +256 772-388-881 Website: engineersgaa.org