Women MPs making Oyam a ‘model district’

On July 6, Dr Eunice Apio Otuko of Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) was declared the winner in the Oyam North parliamentary by-election. Her win made Oyam a unique district, only represented by women in the 11th Parliament.

Dr Apio, who was the only female candidate in the hotly contested race, got 15,718 votes, defeating her closest rival, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) flag bearer, Samuel Engola Okello Junior (son of late Col (Rtd) Charles Okello Engola), who polled 15,161 votes.

Others in the race were Mr Daniel Okello of National Unity Platform (NUP) party and the Forum for Democratic Change’s Newton Freddy Okello, who managed to get 403 votes and 714 votes respectively, out of the 32,751 votes cast.

Dr Apio’s election is now seen as a boost for women representation in leadership. In Oyam women have now dominated all parliamentary seats. These include the two directly-elected positions, and the district representative – a position ring-fenced for women. 

In the “big three” there is Oyam County South MP Ms Betty Amongi (UPC), who is also the Gender minister. Having served as a Woman MP for Apac District (2001-2011) and obtained the voters’ trust, Ms Amongi contested for the position of MP for Oyam South in 2011 and beat the men hands down. 

In 2021, she contested again with seven others, and garnered 27,024 votes, while her closet contender, Ms Queen Dorothy Amolo (Independent), polled 14,883 votes. Others in the race were Mr Patrick Obong of NRM who managed to get 5,504 votes; Mr Ishaa Otto Amiza (Independent) – whom Ms Amongi had earlier in 2011 uprooted from the seat – getting 1,205 votes; Mr Willy Odongo (Independent) polled 1,032 votes, Mr Benard Awuko (Independent) fetched 358 votes; Mr Alfred Okech (Forum for Democratic Change) got 140 votes and Mr Godfrey Odongo (Independent) got 125 votes. 

The area Woman MP is Ms Santa Alum Ogwang (UPC). Ms Alum has been the area MP for over a decade. She first went to Parliament in 2011 after beating NRM’s Beatrice Amongi Lagada and has since won the seat. 

Why Oyam has voted for women   
Voters seemingly found Dr Apio best suited for the seat. During her campaigns she promised them economic gains, better education and good health. Importantly though, Dr Apio has walked the talk by touching the lives of people affected by the two-decade Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) conflict in the north, through Facilitation for Peace and Development (FAPAD), an organisation she founded with other women. 

The organisation, which operates in Lango Sub-region, tackles issues of property rights for women and children, specifically widows and orphans who have faced several types of abuse.
Dr Apio says her election was an appreciation for her community service. 

“I brought a new narrative to the politics of Oyam North. Members of the Uganda Peoples Congress also assured us that I was popular at the grassroots. I think my policy reflected the reality on the ground and so I was speaking the same language with the voters on issues of development, and other things which are closer at heart,” she says.

In addition to the above, Dr Apio has had experience in standing for hotly contested positions. In 2021, the NRM candidate, the late Engola, retained the Oyam North seat after garnering 22,895 votes, beating four others. 

UPC’s Apio polled 17,114 votes; Mr Krispus Ayena Odongo (Independet) managed 8,498 votes; while Mr Henry Oboke Edonga and Mr Nam Joe, both Independents polled 175 votes and 140 votes respectively.  
For this election, the newly elected MP believes she was better resourced and supported.

“This time round, UPC party structures had the opportunity to support my bid in Oyam North. We had the party president, Mr Akena who, carried along with him the infrastructure that was required to support me. In 2021, I stood as a UPC flag bearer and we had the numbers, but we had one weakness, we could not protect the votes properly! So, a lot of the votes were stolen. Single-handedly, I could only protect 17,000 votes,” she says.

For the case of Ms Alum, it is said women who are the majority in Oyam always identify themselves with her since she supports them in various village savings and loan associations (VSLAs) scattered across the district. Of the 383,644 people living in Oyam, 196,523 are females and 187,121 are males, according to National Population and Housing Census 2014. Ms Alum provides financial support to groups established at village level for members to borrow and pay back.

The Oyam Woman MP reveals that she now looks at Oyam as a model district as far as women emancipation is concerned. 

“I first want to really appreciate them [people of Oyam]. I feel so happy. Why? In the last elections, the people of Oyam voted overwhelmingly for me – over 91 percent. Why did they do that? They say, ‘We are extremely happy with the way you’ve represented us.' By the people of Oyam electing only women, it means we the women who have been in leadership – myself and honourable Betty Amongi – we have been role models,” Ms Ogwang says.     

As for Minister Amongi, she says she was first elected to Parliament in 2001 based on her performance.
“And since then, they [electorates] do so, because of honouring my word to them, being reliable in times of need, and dependable when I pledge to do something,” she says, adding that voters look for a person who can address their needs such as good roads, access to electricity, and socio-economic empowerment, among others. 

“Voters look for a person who can be their shield, able to protect them when need arises; their voice, dependable.”  

The minister believes that Dr Apio was voted based on the clarity of her agenda. “Voters had seen what I and the Woman MP [Alum] had achieved, and they were confident that women can perform sometimes better than men.”

Mr Isha Otto Amiza, the former Oyam South legislator and a two-time contender against Ms Amongi, believes the people in Oyam District vote for a certain kind of people, regardless of their gender, experience, knowledge and charisma. 

“That traces back to the late Charles Okello Engola. He was a distinguished soldier and that was the basis on which he was elected. Dr Okullo Epak was a distinguished engineer, Ben Wacha was a distinguished legislator, Krispus Ayena Odongo was a distinguished international lawyer,” he says.

“There was Ms Beatrice Lagada, a distinguished educationist, Mr Otto Amiza, a distinguished activist and indeed an engineer by profession and Mr Caesar Bongoyinge, a distinguished leader in many fields and professions. Oyam is known for electing leadership based on quality, experience, knowledge and capability,” he adds.

Mr Denis Anyeki, a voter from Western Ward in Oyam Town Council, says the contributions made by Ms Amongi and Ms Alum have “given us confidence that women can perform better than men. In the Oyam North by-election, voters did not look at gender but we elected Dr Apio based on her clear agenda”.

For Ms Beatrice Okwir, a voter in Akuki Village, Aleka Sub-county, she voted women because “they are honest unlike the men who are fond of making promises which are never fulfilled’’.  

Another voter Janet Adong says: “Those female MPs always ensure that what is meant for the locals reaches the intended beneficiaries. Also, there is always a lot of development in a constituency represented by a woman. In Oyam, for instance, those female MPs have supported the formation of various village savings and loan associations (VSLAs), which are helping us educate children and enhance livelihoods.”   

What fellow contenders say 
FDC’s Okello says Dr Apio won the election because the people of Oyam believe that her victory in 2021 was robbed. 

“So, I think they decided to consolidate on that and give her the vote. The candidate that NRM fronted was not the choice of the people and there was a protest vote from the NRM camp to UPC. Of the 10 people who contested in NRM primaries, nine were silenced,” Mr Okello says.

He further says commercialisation of elections affected the outcome of Oyam North polls. 
“We realised that much as NRM was busy spending, UPC also had a lot of money, which for us as FDC we didn’t have,” he addds. 

Mr Okello of NUP on the other hand, believes commercialisation of the election, intimidation and vote rigging coupled with poor mobilisation due to financial constraints hugely affected him.

The closest rival to Dr Apio, Mr Engola Junior says he will first have to scrutinise the results and comment on the poll outcome.

Women emancipation 
A number of women-based organisations feel women’s representation in the national Parliament is a key indicator of the extent of gender equality.

Ms Jane Frances Oling, the executive director of Women in Development in Uganda, a non-governmental organisation, says Oyam is a case study of good practice to the entire country.
“I feel the joy, the pride, the true meaning of gender transformation and empowerment that they fought for many years ago right from Makerere University [when we were students],” she says.

According to Ms Oling, Ms Amongi, Ms Alum and Dr Apio stand out because they are fully empowered women, and highly educated, courtesy of the current regime of President Museveni that empowered women.
“The people of Oyam believe more in women, they also like serious people and these female MPs happen to be very serious and qualified women in terms of leadership,” she says. 

“Oyam District also has very sound female leaders in various capacities, for example Ms Jane Frances Oling, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng (Minister of Health); Ruth Atala Adupa Oling (a senior government official at the Health Services Commission); Hon Beatrice Lagada (former MP and headmistress at St Catherine Girl’s School Lira and RDC),” she adds.  

UPC advantage 
There were a number of reasons UPC took the day in the recently held by-election. Many agree that the disorganisation in the NRM camp, as well the presence of the UPC Party president supporting their candidate were major factors.

Mr Dennis Olodi, a political strategist, says: “The fact that Dr Apio was part of the 2021 polls to the point of even threatening the late Okello Engola played to her advantage. Even before nominations were conducted, she was not a new face to the electorate. Then the candidate that was presented by NRM, in as much as he is a son of the late (Engola Macodwogo), had other factors which wouldn’t work to his advantage. 

“He (Engola Junior) was a member of Uganda People’s Congress and was only convinced to contest on the NRM ticket.” 

A political commentator and also an NRM strongman, Mr Patrick Odongo, aka Lango, has similar sentiments as Mr Olodi. He says the UPC party took advantage of the disarray in the NRM camp.

“The NRM party structures on the ground were sidelined, this frustrated the locals. Given the star attraction of Jimmy Akena, the UPC president, the electorate immediately decamped to UPC,” Mr Odongo says. 

Mr Willy Omodo-Omodo, a two-time parliamentary candidate in Oyam, who withdrew from the NRM primaries in favour of Engola Junior, says UPC victory in Oyam North by-election was no surprise to him since NRM fronted a weak candidate.

“If you look at the four candidates, Dr Otuko was the best and the electorates voted the best candidate. But if the NRM party had allowed me to contest, voters would elect me,” says Mr Omodo Omodo, the former NRM youth vice chairperson for northern Uganda.

Ambassador emeritus Julius Peter Moto, an NRM member who had shown interest in the Oyam North seat, but withdrew from the race, days before the party primary election, says the NRM camp did not have the finishing tactics. 

“The team consisted of loose mobilisers from Lira and elsewhere, with total ignorance of the voters’ customs. In addition, despite having all favours directed to the NRM candidate, he [Engola Junior] failed to use it to his advantage,” he says.

Mr Moto further acknowledges that Ms Amongi and Ms Alum are popular UPC stalwarts that always manoeuvre easily in UPC strongholds. 

Balancing politics, family 
In Uganda, women find that they have to navigate the cultural and societal gender norms which still expect them to be the primary home caretakers. The three Oyam MPs talk about how they are managing those expectations.  

Dr Otuko says she is not the first woman who has successfully won a seat for a directly elected MP. 
“This is a seat for directly-elected Members of Parliament. There are so many women in the 11th Parliament, even the previous Parliament who actually offered themselves as directly elected Members of Parliament alongside men and they took it,” she says. 

“Culture keeps evolving and with new factors on board like education, for example, things are beginning to change for the betterment of society.”

Employing others
For Ms Amongi, all the roles she has are important and are given due time and respect. She says she takes her role as a mother and wife seriously. 

“I have employed three workers who do all the work required. Every evening, I spend time with my children and impart various life skills and traditional values to them. I assign them to work and supervise them to do household work. They all are very good chefs, both boys and girls. I cook every Sunday. If I am not home, I have to find a way of providing a meal on Sunday because that’s the day everyone knows it’s my turn to cook,” she says.

Ms Alum notes that one big challenge female legislators are faced with is how to balance their time doing domestic work, going to Parliament and the field to meet the electorate.

“It is not easy to balance the role. First of all, we have a productive role as Members of Parliament, and we have a reproductive role as women and that one is my role. I cannot really delegate it,” she says.

“I am a leader, wife and mother with children both biological and those who are staying with me. So, these are three key roles that I have to balance as a female Member of Parliament. I look at myself as a prime minister of the home and of course my husband is the president,” she adds. 

Supportive partners 

Ms Amongi shares: “My husband, being a politician, supports me in all ways, including sometimes representing me in my constituency if I am not able to do so.”

Ms Alum says her husband gives her all the necessary support she needs as a leader and wife. 

“Sometimes I come back when I am extremely exhausted, sometimes I don’t even want to eat but he will encourage me: ‘Let’s eat, let’s eat” she says, admitting that in African tradition, women are supposed to be the caretakers of the home.

“When I was joining politics most men tried to discourage him from allowing me to join politics. But right from the word go, he has been very supportive, and very encouraging to the extent that he gives me all the freedom. He gives me the freedom to use the resources I have, the freedom to use the time that I have but I’m also mindful that I am somebody’s wife. For example, if you call me late [at night], you’re not going to find me because I really want to leave that time for the family, and my voters, they know. If there is something so urgent, they also know how to get me,” Ms Alum says.

“Sometimes as a Member of Parliament, you can even lack the basic necessities. So, there he will come in to play his role as a man and as my husband who is supposed to be the breadwinner. So, that gives me a lot of comfort that I need. 

“In the last Parliament, sometimes we used to leave Parliament at 10pm, and then by the time you’re reaching home it is  10:30pm or even 11pm, but you will reach home and somebody will not welcome you by quarrelling.” 

However, she urges caution. “As a female Member of Parliament, you have to do your role irrespective of the amount of money you earn. When you do your role, it will even encourage your husband to also come and appreciate who you are and really give you that support.”

The experience is similar for Dr Apio, who says her husband Fred Ebil Ebil has supported her morally and financially since 2021 when she first harboured political ambitions. Mr Ebil Ebil is the former Kole County MP, Kole District, and UPC Secretary General of the Akena-led UPC faction. 

“We have been so lucky that Fred Ebil is a politician as well. So, he understands the dynamic of politics really well and we were always discussing his own experiences from when he started being active in politics, and we compare notes every day. Even in 2021, we did the same – what lessons I could draw and how best I could make use of those lessons,” Dr Apio says. 

“So, moral support was there. His goodwill has been very elaborate towards my candidature; he’s been supporting me. I think it would have been difficult really this time without him on board. Two, of course we had to look for resources as a family to be able to do that, but also his car – a Prado – that he has been using, he said, ‘We are going to repair this car and you will be using it for now’.”