Anite dances to her own political tune

If you have watched Everybody Hates Chris, a sitcom based on the experiences of an American teenager and his attempts to survive his dysfunctional family, you just might get to understand that for Evelyn Anite, it is all showbiz. All of us have a role to play in life, the only difference is; she enjoys her role – immensely.
On the first day of the Age Limit Debate Anite stood out, shouting, “Order!” continuously. She blames her inability to stomach the lies that were being spoken about her by a fellow member of parliament (MP), saying if she were near him, she would have boxed him.
“You have come to interview me? Ho! Ho! Let me eat my food,” she says before taking the tray proffered by her secretary and firmly shutting the door to her office. I sit back and twiddle my thumbs wondering what she is having for lunch at 2.15pm, and thinking about the lunch I missed to make this appointment.
Five minutes later, I am ushered into her office. The 32-year-old state minister for investment and privatisation, has decided we should converse as she eats her chips and chicken. I politely decline her offer of lunch. She is very jovial, though – even complimenting my shoes – and quite chatty. At intervals, I struggle to take control of the interview.
The attention seeker
It is easy to guess Anite’s personality just by counting the number of pictures of herself on the walls of her office. “I like to be out there,” she says, continuing, “I like to be seen; to be talked about. I put myself in people’s faces. I love that. I love to be on the map. I want people to be like, ‘This celeb!’ or ‘Wow! Who did that?’ I want to bark and be felt, to do things that are bizarre and unique. When I was young, I sang in the choir. It was a big choir and I would not get noticed. So, I would compose my own song and sing it alone in front of everyone just to get noticed. But, that was not enough.”
To get more attention, Anite thought it best to join broadcast media. “I tried to join radio in Senior Four (St Mary’s Ediofe Secondary School) but my mother managed to stop me. In Senior Six (Muni Girls Secondary School) vacation, though, I joined radio (Arua One FM). My parents were well-off but I wanted to put the family name on the map of Arua and West Nile. I wanted people to talk about my father’s family.”
During this year’s Independence celebrations in Koboko District, young men put Anite in a chair and carried her to the venue of the celebrations. She claims she did not know them. “I arrived in the constituency at 10am. When they carried me, I was frightened because I was up in the sky. I could see at a distance that my opponents had mobilised students. I imagined those students throwing a stone at my head. But, I put on a brave face.”
When I ask Anite to define her true character, she calls herself a go-getter. “I love to get what I want. Unfortunately, I get everything I want. It is unfortunate for the public because they do not want me to succeed.”

Her biggest political fight
On January 26, 1986, when a 42-year-old Yoweri Museveni was driven in a black Mercedes Benz through a war-ravaged Kampala to swear-in at Parliament, Anite was two-years-old. They got to know each other at close quarters when she became the Youth MP for Northern Uganda in 2011. He was 67; she was 27. In their relationship, familiarity has never bred contempt.
“The greatest battle of my life was when I fought for the president to become sole candidate (she laughs). The first day, in Ngoma, I gave my personal reasons and it did not augur well with the MPs. They abused me, calling me childish and being driven by village excitement. They said, ‘The guy is old!’”
Returning to the dormitory at the National Leadership Institute in Kyankwanzi, Anite cried. “I cried the whole night. I called my husband and he told me to be strong. When I woke up, I had red eyes. My friends Peter (Ogwang) and Frank (Tumwebaze) consoled me, and advised me to stick to the national justifications for my resolution. They gave me pen and paper to write them down and advised me to get signatures from the MPs.”
To make the resolution fly, Anite came up with the coup de chance. “I had to put drama into it. What makes news is not the way you read the news, but the way you stand as you read the news. Since I was reading the resolution for the second time, I decided to kneel. That is what made the headlines. You cannot just stand there and say, ‘Therefore, I urge you…’ By the way, it was not about money. I was already a minister and I had the money. It was passion.”
She says she derives her political strength from the president’s personality. “If you are in a house, eating good food every day, why go to a house where you are going to starve?”

Anite, the traditional wife
Becoming a minister came as a pleasant surprise to Anite. While she was with a group of Koboko elders, praying for her next electoral bid, she got a call telling her she had been appointed youth minister. At first, she was apprehensive. “I had seen my predecessor suffer at the hands of the youth. My husband congratulated me, but cautioned me. My life changed; I got bodyguards.”
Her life at home, though, did not change. Her husband, Allan Kajik, remains the man of the home, and she, the respectful wife. “I am a complete contrast of my husband. He is cool headed, not very fast, quiet and does not love public life. But, I still kneel for him. I do not flaunt the ministerial position in his face. We both do not drink or hang out. Instead, we play loud music at home and dance. I love lying on his chest as we watch Telemundo.”
She defines her wedding as her biggest moment. It was a marriage made in political heaven. They met at Uganda Media Centre during a political meeting where she was the only woman. She was in her second year at Uganda Christian University.
“I was thinking of joining politics and I asked for his advice. He told me to skip lectures the next day and meet him. He advised me to join youth politics, but we were interested in the same seat, so we bargained, and agreed that I should stand. I had a boyfriend, but he was not serious. You keep trying and erroring (sic). On the campaign trail, one thing led to another. “He is a fantastic guy who is not a womaniser,” she says.
The mother-of-two remains true to her school friends. “Those are my real friends. The new friends are just workmates. I do not know their intentions. Fair-weather friends come and go. For instance, they do not call to console me when I am being abused on social media. There are some new friends I have found, but … (she laughs).”

Disappointing the Women’s Movement
When I put it to Anite that women activists are not happy that she does not speak up for issues that affect women yet she rode on the gains of the Women’s Movement to join politics, she asks if I am a feminist. When I say that I am not, she lets loose a barrage of words punctuated by high pitched laughter.
“Am I the only woman in a top position? There is a minister for women and gender issues, so what do they want me to do? Advocate for marriage and divorce? I am not the only woman in Uganda. If my passion is to toe the party line, let another woman rise up and advocate for sanitary towels. I cannot advocate for everything. I am not bonna (everyone). They have Hon Monica Amoding. Let her advocate for them. Why should we all crowd our energy in one corner?”
She speaks strongly about buying sanitary pads for the girls in her constituency and giving the women Mama Kits every Women’s Day because complaining about a situation does not deliver solutions.
“I cannot start advocating for divorce because I do not believe in it. I do not believe that when you are empowered you are supposed to throw away your husband. At the end of the day, I must have a husband. How many women in politics today can believe and say that about themselves? Maybe they feel they need their freedom. That is why I am not in those bu groups of theirs; those things called UWOPA or what. I have never associated with them. That is why I contest with men. I do not do the Woman MP thing. I believe women should join politics, but I cannot tell you I am a woman activist.”
Believing that she must survive “whether it is a world of men or not,” Anite preaches the same gospel to the women in her constituency as she gives them money to start businesses. “I tell them, ‘If you disrespect your husband, he will clobber you. Don’t just walk out of the home saying Anite has called me for a meeting. Tell the man where you are going.’ What makes women fail is that they look at men as enemies yet those men can actually work for us if we treat them well.”
She says her God-given role is to bear children, be a mother, and to make sure the house is clean, whether she is busy with official duties or not.
Having done it all by the time she was 30, one wonders what Anite looks forward to in life. In the short term, she wants to continue being an MP. In the long term, though, she wants to dazzle Africa. That is why she is studying a Masters degree in International Relations. Currently, she is reading Industrialization in Africa by Makonnen Alemayehu and Made in Africa: Industrial Policy in Ethiopia by Arkebe Oqubay.
However, her self-confessed love is talking. Inspite of stirring up trouble, when she has time, she sleeps until midday because, “I have peace of mind.”
She is talkative right to the end of the interview. We say goodbye like we were old friends.

On being hated
According to Anite, if you abuse her, it is an impetus – a go-ahead. “For those who hate me, it is their problem. I only get negative reactions from social media and it does not bother me. The more they talk, the more my head works, thinking of the next (controversial) move. Do you know how many MPs we have? If out of all those MPs you are not known, then you are doing nothing. People have to feel your presence. When I do something and I am not talked about, then I have not worked.”
Calling herself someone who speaks only the truth, she asks where she erred in saying the magye (army) protects the sovereignty of Ugandans. “I did not say the magye protects only NRM. It was a matter of different interpretation. But, I do not regret anything I say or do. When I expressed patriotism and said Ugandans should support (Uganda Telecom) UTL in the spirit of (Buy Uganda Build Uganda) BUBU, they (media) drew my cartoon! Actually, I have decided to work harder to make UTL better.”
On whether she has had to protect her children from the negative press, Anite says her oldest child is only four years old. She insists people who are not on social media love her, giving an example of the vendors of Nakawa market who praised her when she went shopping last Saturday.