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Have Ugandan women lived up to expectations? Part I

Prof George W. Kanyeihamba

What you need to know:

It is now more than 20 years since the affirmative action law was adopted and nationally accepted in the belief that it would be honestly and rationally implemented and enforced. The only question today is whether Ugandans have achieved the objectives and adopted programmes we entrusted to ourselves and posterity to equalise men and women and uplift the disadvantaged.

Following the rejection of the 1980 general election, Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and some 26 other courageous Ugandans decided to go to the bush to wage a war of liberation which thousands of Ugandans believed was justified.
Thereafter, the Museveni fighters attracted and were joined by dozens and then hundreds of other Ugandans in the same war until they numbered in millions. Initially, many other Ugandans thought the fighters had no chance in hell to defeat the then well organised oligarchs with their mighty security forces.
That notwithstanding, the number of new recruits to the Bush War continued to swell. The fighters were not only men. There were dozens of women who had the same courage and also resolved to abandon their homes and families to join the liberators.

Gallant ladies
Many people remember those gallant ladies, including Gertrude Njuba, Zizinga, Winnie Byanyima, Joy Mirembe and Florence Nalweyiso, some of who were given high military ranks and honours for their courage and leadership.
During that time, I remember Gertrude Njuba visiting the Ugandan community in exile in the United Kingdom. I was chairman of the Uganda group of human rights. We invited her to address the Ugandan community and our British supporters.
Her address was very powerful and moving. It reduced many listeners in the audience to tears as she described conditions in Uganda and the bush. Other women in the then NRA/M undertook similar missions elsewhere in the world.

By the end of the civil war in 1986, there was no longer any doubt that Uganda was meant for both men and women to equally share and enjoy the benefits as well as face the challenges of whatever nature the country could encounter.
It is for these reasons that the 1995 Constitution declared that men and women are equal in all aspects of life, whether social, economic or political and also in marriage. It further abolished any laws, customs and habits that tended to discriminate on grounds of gender or other grounds.

The makers of the Constitution realised that despite the theoretical rules that were put in the 1995 Constitution, in reality and practice, the existing gaps between men and women with regard to equality and other rights would remain very wide.
That was why they established affirmative action which included the recognition of special groups that needed it. The Constitution allocated to each of them a specified percentage of seats in every elective and representative or appointed body or authority. Naturally, women came first. The other groups were the youth, soldiers, disabled and workers.

It is now more than 20 years since the affirmative action law was adopted and nationally accepted in the belief that it would be honestly and rationally implemented and enforced. The only question today is whether Ugandans have achieved the objectives and adopted programmes we entrusted to ourselves and posterity to equalise men and women and uplift the disadvantaged.

The obvious answer is that we have not. Not every Ugandan has capacity or knowledge to play an effective role in the implementation and enforcement referred to. Some are more capable than others. While some of us have that capacity, millions of our compatriots do not have ample opportunities to do anything.
So the scheme has failed, principally because our elected leaders and the elite have miserably failed to do the necessary.

Ironically, women leaders in government, Parliament and civil society organisations are mainly responsible for the failure to execute and enforce affirmative action.
In the Constituent Assembly that debated, formulated, passed and promulgated the 1995 Constitution, women delegates dominated, achieved greater accomplishments and stamped their authority on their male counterparts in the debates and decisions relating to the empowering of women and affirmative action.

I was a member of the Assembly and recall the oratory and passionate advocacy of women delegates such as Miria Matembe, Winnie Byanyima, Cecilia Ogwal, Joanna Rwabyomire, Margaret Zziwa, Hope Ruhindi and Faith Mwondha, among others. Today, Ugandans wonder what happened to them and their successors since the adoption of the 1995 Constitution.
In Part II, we shall contend that as a country, we have miserably failed to live up to expectations. The major culprits for this failure are our leaders, the elite and surprisingly, women leaders themselves.

Prof Kanyeihamba is a retired Supreme Court judge. [email protected]