Florence Nebanda prefers to keep her personal life private

Though she has replaced her sister as MP for Butaleja, she says they are totally different and that is about all she will divulge about her personal life.

Whenever an unknown person comes into the limelight, most of us are keen on knowing everything about them.

We want to discover interesting things about their lives, relationships, failures, ambitions, dreams and so many other personal things. Some are willing to share such details with the world while others prefer to keep it to themselves.

Unappealing idea
Florence Nebanda Andiru, the new Woman Member of Parliament for Butaleja District, and sister to Cerinah Nebanda, who held that position at the time she died, is one of those who is mindful about privacy.

The 27-year-old legislator hardly opens up to people she barely knows about her personal life.

I noticed it during a brief phone conversation and then in a one-on-one meeting with her.

The phone conversation happened about two weeks ago when I called to request for an interview. It was mainly to discuss her home life; she told me how unappealing the idea was to her.

Values privacy
“I do not like discussing my personal life with the media. It is my personal business. If you want an interview, that is fine but we shall only be talking about my work,” Andiru asserted.

I tried to explain that such an interview would help people, especially those in Butaleja, know who she was.

“Do not insist. If you really need one, let it be about my work,” she replied even more assertively. At this point, I was afraid that she would hang up, so I hurriedly agreed to her suggestion.

We zeroed in on a date to meet at her new office at Parliament and it was from this meeting that I further discovered how heavily she guards her privacy. On that particular day, I was at Parliament by noon which was the agreed time of the meeting.

Meeting her
Dressed in a brown and black patterned kitenge, Andiru, who is of medium height, warmly welcomed me to her office with a soft handshake and immediately offered me a seat.

She has a smooth face and her hair was neatly combed backwards.

I found it intriguing that the Woman MP who had just ushered me into her office was hardly known around this time last year.

Andiru came into the political limelight earlier this year when she was nominated to stand on the National Resistance Movement (NRM) ticket for the Butaleja Woman MP seat, which fell vacant after the death of her younger sister, Cerinah Nebanda, 23, last December.

As much as our earlier agreement was not to discuss anything about her or family life, I tried to persuade her to reconsider the thought.