Spare Anite; our problem is politics and patronage

Ms Evelyn Anite, the Investment and Privatisation minister, has been framed by sections of the media and the public through social media as the problem in the ongoing saga involving Uganda Telecom Limited (UTL).

Her understanding of how government works and integrity have been questioned. Her claim that there are threats on her life have drawn mixed reaction.

Ms Anite has been advised to stop being emotional and learn some emotional intelligence. Some people have asked her to resign and run for her life. She has been advised to join the Opposition if she is tired of the corruption in government.

And many, without mincing their words, have intimated that this was long overdue, she is getting what she deserved for her actions in what they perceive as sheer display of arrogance of power in the past.

Indeed, ‘the teeth may smile but the heart does not forget’.

Away from the noise, I am sympathetic to Ms Anite and pray for her, given the stones being thrown at her. I do not admire her politics, but I believe she does not deserve to be subjected to public ridicule and disrespect. I am appalled by Mr Mwesigwa Rukutana’s disgraceful utterance, trivialising and sexualising Ms Anite by suggesting that she is a girl he can put to some ‘other good use’.

Besides being an insult, it displays grave gender barriers to women in politics. Many people would have us believe that Mr Rukutana is simply uncultured, disrespectful to women and badly brought up, that is why Ms Anite is not the first woman he has dismissed in this fashion. Most of us remember a more recent example.

Perhaps, Ms Anite is not the problem, but our politics and patronage. Her difficulty is not properly understanding what is at stake in Uganda’s political landscape as well as appreciating the complexities around which most women navigate politics and the enormous challenges they face.

Her other fault perhaps, is imagining that as a young woman, she would gain the trust and respect of those she would work with or supervise, when her real claim to the position was an act of loyalty, for which she was rewarded but many despised her.

As a result, this has made it necessary for Ms Anite to prove a point, even when unnecessary.
This begs the question of who mentors and supports young women when entrusted with power and huge responsibilities such as taking care of a big portfolio like investment and privatisation, given the interests and resources involved? Are they prepared for their new world of money, politics and power?

Having said that, one must admire Ms Anite’s courage and confidence to face that world, punishing even to more mature and seasoned politicians as it is.

We need to look beyond her personal life, character and mistakes if any. We should not take the easy way out by making this about her as a person, her character and imputing ill motives. We should put it in context and examine why she finds herself in such a situation and help her to rise above it.

The issues she raises, even though we may not agree with her methods are not in dispute.

Our politics was best described by Ms Winnie Byanyima while addressing the Constituent Assembly on August 3, 1994, cited in Women and Politics in Uganda by Aili Mari Tripp.

Perhaps the magnitude of her claim has since escalated with many within the National Resistance Movement (NRM) seeing retention of power as something they must do everything in their power to ensure.

She noted that “sections of the press and some politicians have made ‘eating’ acceptable and have placed it right at the centre of political debate. Struggling in the trapping of power is now at the centre stage, it has become acceptable and even fashionable. Values which we women care about such as caring, serving, building, reconciling, healing and sheer decency are becoming absent from our political culture. The eating is crude, self-centred, egotistic, shallow, narrow and ignorant.” It is in the middle of that political culture Ms Anite is fighting.

More than anything else, her perceived faults notwithstanding, we need to cut this backlash to size.

She is also a victim of a political culture that thrives on patronage and disempowering all who stand in the way of those who eat, wherever they are-in politics, civil service or local governments. Threatening the status quo, even by principled and credible politicians elicit incredible backlash, regardless of gender. Many who attempt to stand in the way of such eating, have been disciplined.

Ms Anite is not the first to face the ‘mafia’, the difference is when women make claims like that, it is reduced to emotional outburst.

Dr Maractho is the head and senior lecturer, Department of Journalism and Media
studies at UCU.
[email protected]