Professor Gilbert Baalibaseka Bukenya is a graduate of Makerere University School of Medicine ,with the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB). He worked as a Medical Officer at Mbale Hospital up to 1982 and then left Uganda for Papua New Guinea.

While outside Uganda, he obtained a Diploma in Public Health from the Royal Institute of Public Health, in London, in 1982. He also attained the degrees of Master of Science (MSc) from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine UK, and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) from the University of Queensland, with a thesis topic of The Epidemiology of Under-Five Childhood Diarrhoeas in a Peri-Urban Population of Papua New Guinea.

Gilbert Bukenya returned to Uganda as a Professor of Medicine and was appointed dean of Makerere University School of Medicine, a position he held from 1994 until 1996.

Gilbert Balibaseka Bukenya is also Ugandan politician and physician who was the seventh vice president of Uganda from 23 May 2003 until 23 May 2011. He has represented the constituency of Busiro County North in the Ugandan Parliament since 1996.