Joweria Kaweesi, inmate at Luzira Women’s Prison. PHOTO/TONNY ABET
Joweria Kaweesi, an inmate at Luzira Women’s Prison, was the only female student to complete and pass the 2024 Uganda Certificate of Education (UCE) examinations. Imprisoned in 2016 at the age of 17, Kaweesi remained determined to transforming her life. Her commitment to personal growth and a positive mindset fueled her perseverance through O-Level education.
“I feel so happy, I feel so different, I feel like I have confidence in myself,” an excited Kaweesi says when Monitor visited her at the prison on Tuesday afternoon. Kaweesi sat the 2019 Primary Leaving Examinations (PLE) with four other female inmates. She says two inmates failed PLE and those who passed joined secondary education.
“Two people dropped out in Senior Two but I remained because I knew what I was looking for,” she narrates. “I wanted to make people outside the prison know that even if I’m in prison, it’s not the end. I made sure that instead of feeling like I am imprisoned and everything is done, I just made it my opportunity to add something to my life,” she says.
Kaweesi says when she found an education programme at the prison, she recognised it was time to make the right decisions and become a better person. “I want to be a better person. I came in prison, I don’t want to go out when I’m still the same person. That’s why I decided to join school,” she reveals. “It takes heart. You have to know what you’re looking for.
Biblically, there is a reason why God put you in a situation. So even if it is difficult, don’t look at the negative side, you have to look at the positive side.” Kaweesi credits her success to the unwavering support of prison authorities and educators. “I thank my officer in charge, Atoo Stel[1]la Salume, Madam Pedun, and the headmistress Jackie, who made sure I was always in class. I thank the prison service at large. Some people inside there call edu[1]cation a second file; you know books are not easy. So when you’re in prison then you add on books, it is not an easy thing,” she says.
Why do others drop out?
Kaweesi attributes the high dropout rate to various challenges. “One friend said she had ulcers. She said she never had time to do extra work (inside the prison) for someone to get money,” she reveals. “You know this side you can wash for someone, you get [money] to buy what to eat and all that. So she said she could not get time to do the paid work to get a different food from the government’s food, that’s why she dropped out.”
“Another said, ‘I’m thinking about a lot of things, my kids, my file’. They dropped out. Others said they couldn’t add education to their file. As you know, if you’re convicted for many years, and you add on books; books bring stress,” she adds.
On his part, Mr Gilbert Niwamanya, the head of schools at the Luzira Prison, says of the 339 inmates in secondary education, there are only 27 females. In contrast, the primary section has registered 54 female learners.
“You must realise that the new curriculum requires someone who started from Senior One and the fact is we get when our students have dropped out of school,” Mr Niwamanya says. He adds: “When we get female learners who had dropped out of Senior Two and advise them to go [back] to Senior One, they feel that is a demotion and decline to continue with education, and for that reason, we had one candidate.”
Niwamanya believes that many women struggle to balance the emotional burden of imprisonment with academic demands.
What next after passing examinations
Mr Niwamanya says they have A-Level classes, majorly for arts subjects. “We have not been handling sciences at A-Level apart from Mathematics, Economics and Geography because of issues to do with the laboratory and also the name of the school which changes in A-Level to Luzira Upper Prison Hall and you find that in the Uganda National Examinations Board setting, a hall cannot register pure sciences,” he says.
Kaweesi sat for Chemistry, English, Physics, History, Christian Religious Education, and Geography, scoring four Cs, one A, and one D—qualifying her for A-Level. “I want to continue with education. There is one course here, Law, and I don’t want to be a lawyer because it is not my passion. I want to be an accountant,” she says.
Kaweesi says she had hoped to pursue Senior Five and Six outside prison, pending an appeal. However, the court dismissed her appeal on January 24, reaffirming her nine-year sentence from 2016. “So, I thought by the time the appeal comes back it will be positive on my side so that I do my Senior Five and Six from out. I even shared it with my family and they are ready to pay my school fees,” she says.
Kaweesi urges young people to embrace hard work and avoid crime. “To people outside, boys, big women, I appeal to you, work hard with your hands, the money you have got with your effort, with your power with your sweat is very good. Please stop. Stop doing crimes, it’s not good,” Kaweesi says.
