Women achievers of 2019

Beatrice Anywar Atim, politician
Formerly an FDC diehard, the controversial Beatrice Anywar Atim joined elective politics, in 2006 when she competed for the Kitgum Municipality parliamentary seat and won. During her first term in Parliament, she was appointed a shadow minister for the environment.
Between 2006 and 2015, Anywar was one of the strongest leaders in FDC, until 2016 parliamentary elections when she lost FDC primaries.
Her fallout with FDC began when the FDC party accused Anywar of supporting presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi’s candidature and openly defying FDC decision to back Dr Kizza Besigye as the party flag bearer. Subsequently, the party backed another candidate in the Kitgum Municipality.
Feeling cheated Anywar ran as an independent political candidate and won the parliamentary seat, with a comfortable margin, beating several high profile opponents.
Last week, President Museveni appointed Beatrice Anywar Atim as the new Minister of State for Environment during a Cabinet reshuffle.

Lydia Mugambe Ssali, Judiciary
She is a judge of the High Court and the winner of the 2017 Women’s Link International People’s Choice Gavel Award for her work on issues of gender-based justice. In 2017 she took part in the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellow at Columbia University in New York. On December 16, she won the prestigious Vera Chirwa human rights award. She was recognised by the highly rated University of Pretoria in South Africa for her contribution towards advancing the socio-economic rights of the vulnerable and ensuring gender-based justice in Africa through her courageous and impactful judicial career. Justice Mugambe was also part of the experts who were involved in the drafting and passing of the 2019 Abidjan Principles that streamlined the involvement of private actors in the education sector.

Winnie Byanyima, unaids boss
Her career speaks for itself. From one big position to another, she has made it to the top of the career ladder, no doubt, she remains an inspiration to many women in Africa. Byanyima started her career as a champion of marginalised communities and women, 30 years ago, as a Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Uganda.
In 2004, she became the director of Women and Development at the African Union Commission, working on the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, an international human rights instrument that became an important tool for reducing the disproportionate effect of HIV on the lives of women in Africa.
She holds an advanced degree in mechanical engineering (in energy conservation and the environment) from the Cranfield Institute of Technology and an undergraduate degree in aeronautical engineering from the University of Manchester.
Until October 2019, Byanyima has been the executive director of Oxfam International since 2013. Prior to that, she served for seven years as the Director of Gender and Development at the United Nations Development Programme. In August 2019, Byanyima was appointed as the executive director of UNAIDS by the United Nations Secretary-General.

Quiin Abenakyo, Miss Uganda 2018/2019
If there is a Miss Uganda that Ugandans ever fell in love with, it is Abenakyo. Her beauty, intelligence, poise and confidence appealled to masses. She represented Uganda at the Miss World 2018 competition, in Sanya, China, in December 2018, the world’s oldest running international beauty pageant. Abenakyo’s project to support the girl-child, called Fighting Teenage Pregnancies won many hearts. All three judges voted for her, sending her into the Top 30 in the competition, the first Ugandan contestant to rise this high, in the history of the Miss World beauty pageant. She finished in the top 5, the highest ranking any Ugandan contestant reached at Miss World. She was crowned Miss World Africa. The current state minister of Tourism in Uganda reported that the government was considering making Abenakyo a tourism ambassador of Uganda since she had become a global icon.

Halimah Nakaayi, sports
On September 30, Uganda woke up to the news of Halimah Nakaayi, the first Ugandan woman to win an 800m medal at the World Championships. Born on October 16, 1994, Nakaayi is a Ugandan middle-distance runner. She competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, in the women’s 800 metres. She was the flag bearer for Uganda in the closing ceremony. Her biggest success is a gold medal in the 800m at the 2019 World Athletics Championships (IAAF). Nakaayi raced into local history books when she became the first Ugandan woman - to win an 800m medal at the World Championships. The 24-year-old is Uganda’s second female gold medalist at the World Championships, after Dorcus Inzikuru, who won 3000m steeplechase in Helsinki, Finland 14 years ago.

Peace Proscovia Drajole Agondua, sports
Thirteen years on, Proscovia’s outstanding shooting skills have seen her catapulted to the world stage, playing against the best teams in the world. 2019 has been a great year for Proscovia; winning Vitality Netball Super league player of the season 2018 and captaining her country at the Commonwealth Games.
Agondua, also added the title of Vitality Netball World Cup 2019 ambassador to her list of achievements. She is a professional Ugandan netball player and the current captain of the Uganda national team who also plays for the Sunshine Coast Lightning in the Australian Super Netball league.
She was also the top scorer for the She Cranes in this year’s netball world cup with 170 goals and guided the team to an all-time high World Cup finish in 7th position. Agondua is one of the biggest netball stars in the world having played professionally in National Insurance Corporation (NIC) netball team in Uganda, Loughborough Lightning in England and currently playing for Sunshine Coast Lightning in Australia.

Siperia Mollie Saairaabo, staged Makerere strike
While women are known for being peaceful and avoid getting into trouble, this time, Siperia led a group of female students that kick-started a strike at Makerere University, on October 22. The a 23-year-old Industrial and Organisational Psychology student mobilised students to display placards against the 15 per cent cumulative tuition increment, a strike that lasted two weeks, caused controversy and saw students arrested.

Harriet Anena, writer
She is one of the most talented poets of our times. She has various accolades, the most recent one being the Wole Soyinka Prize for Literature in Africa. Early this year, she was admitted to Columbia University, for an MFA in Creative Writing. To raise the funds, Anena created a GoFundMe page, a poetry and music experience in June. In April, she was among the more than 40 writers from 21 countries across Africa, that attended the 2019 Berlin African Book Festival under the theme ‘Transitioning From Migration.’

Eleanor Nabwiso, movie producer
Best known for her role Hope in the Hostel, a television series that aired on NTV Uganda between 2011 and 2015, Eleanor Nabwiso has flown high this year. While it takes years for most Ugandan actors be recognised for their work, Nabwiso, March 30, 2019, released a drama film Bed of Thorns that was produced, written, directed, filmed, and edited by women only. This saw her win her first Africa Focus Award at the London Art House Film Festival on October 12. The film which won in the ‘African category.’ rechoes the intense gender-based violence.

Evelyn Namatovu Kironde
The 23- year-old Namatovu, a student at Makerere University Business School became the second woman in history to represent Uganda in Miss International.
Uganda made its debut in Miss International in 2009 with the five-foot-nine and a half Pierra Akwero, 22-years-old at the time, flying the national flag at the 49th Miss International pageant, held in Chengdu Sichuan China. Despite narrowly missing on the crown, Namatovu was handed the best swimsuit.