Wife, widow, former lover campaign in Uganda

KAMPALA – Blazing a trail across Uganda in dazzling gowns, robes and headscarves, three women have brought a splash of colour and a very personal twist to the campaign for the east African country’s presidential election this week.

On a continent where female leaders like Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf are the exception and politics is often dominated by stern former soldiers, many see Uganda’s three ‘Big Mamas’ as striking a blow for women’s liberation in Africa. But others are not so sure, and say that for a woman to be anyone in Uganda, it still helps to have a powerful husband.”One has a husband already in State House and another has a husband who wants State House,” says a female bar owner in the capital Kampala who asked not be named.”The third was there twice already when her man was president!” Only one of Uganda’s three female political heavyweights is running for the presidency, but the other two have played key roles in their husbands’ campaigns for the top job.Perhaps best known to the outside world is Janet Museveni, wife of Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Museveni.A staunch born-again Christian, she has spearheaded the country’s recent abstinence drive against HIV-AIDS, and once organised a rally for hundreds of virgins at a Kampala school.She is making her first political foray in this election by standing for parliament – citing divine intervention.”God has sent me to do this, I must obey,” she said in an interview with state media in which she invoked God 54 times as she explained her decision to run.She also gave a rare glimpse into Museveni family life, revealing that her husband and son gave her little support.Museveni admitted to reporters that he was initially against his wife’s decision to run.But he was perhaps loath to alienate the female voters he has courted since seizing power at the head of a rebel army 20 years ago.Uganda has 100 women to every 95 men.Affirmative action programmes and the appointment in 1994 of Africa’s first female vice president, Specioza Kazibwe, have helped make Museveni a favourite among women voters, according to recent polls.Once a darling of Western donors but now under fire from critics who say he has become increasingly autocratic, Museveni is also the favourite to win this week’s poll.But he faces his toughest election test yet against Kizza Besigye, his former doctor and comrade-in-arms who is now leader of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).GUERRILLA GIRLFRIEND The animosity between the two men is not just political.Besigye’s wife Winnie Byanyima has been a key figure in the opposition campaigns.Joining her husband at rallies and at most of his 25-plus court appearances to answer charges of treason and rape, she has lashed out at Museveni at every turn.The two have a long history.Their families were so close that Byanyima’s father paid the future president’s school fees, and Byanyima later became Museveni’s girlfriend and a guerrilla in the five-year bush war that brought him to power.Museveni was married to Janet at the time, and when he and Winnie fell out, Byanyima became one of his most vocal critics, first as a fiery member of parliament in their home area in western Uganda, and later as Besigye’s wife.She was jailed several times, and in her latest brush with the law she was charged with libel last month for claiming the president bribed judges in her husband’s treason trial.In typically unrepentant style, Byanyima retorted that no one could intimidate her and threatened to expose “secrets” about what she called Museveni’s serious personal, moral, marital and parental flaws.”Let him play fair and clean up his campaign or I will have no choice but to bring documentary evidence to show what a traitor he is to his family and the whole nation,” she said.’HOT AIR’ Byanyima is expected to have a lot of influence at State House if Besigye pulls off a surprise victory.But many Ugandans say it is a pity that the only woman actually running for the top job is the one with the least political clout.Activists like Solome Kimbugwe of the Uganda Women’s Network, a non-governmental organisation, have endorsed Miria Obote, widow of Uganda’s late President Milton Obote, but the polls have given her little hope of success.After her husband was ousted by Museveni, Miria Obote spent two decades in exile in Zambia until his death in October.She returned to Uganda to bury him and took over as leader of the bickering Uganda People’s Congress party.Their son Jimmy also decided to enter politics, shaving off his dreadlocks to run for parliament.Miria Obote has campaigned hard, getting to know voters she last saw in 1985, but has been dogged by ill health and relatively small crowds at meetings, despite her rallying cry that the ‘Mother of the Nation’ has returned.Although surveys show her trailing Museveni and Besigye, Kimbugwe says Miria Obote offers the best hope for women.She accuses political parties of feeding women “hot air”.”They have engaged them but not translated what they say into reality,” she says.”We feel we are tired of lip service.”- Nampa-ReutersBut others are not so sure, and say that for a woman to be anyone in Uganda, it still helps to have a powerful husband.”One has a husband already in State House and another has a husband who wants State House,” says a female bar owner in the capital Kampala who asked not be named.”The third was there twice already when her man was president!” Only one of Uganda’s three female political heavyweights is running for the presidency, but the other two have played key roles in their husbands’ campaigns for the top job.Perhaps best known to the outside world is Janet Museveni, wife of Uganda’s long-serving President Yoweri Museveni.A staunch born-again Christian, she has spearheaded the country’s recent abstinence drive against HIV-AIDS, and once organised a rally for hundreds of virgins at a Kampala school.She is making her first political foray in this election by standing for parliament – citing divine intervention.”God has sent me to do this, I must obey,” she said in an interview with state media in which she invoked God 54 times as she explained her decision to run.She also gave a rare glimpse into Museveni family life, revealing that her husband and son gave her little support.Museveni admitted to reporters that he was initially against his wife’s decision to run.But he was perhaps loath to alienate the female voters he has courted since seizing power at the head of a rebel army 20 years ago.Uganda has 100 women to every 95 men.Affirmative action programmes and the appointment in 1994 of Africa’s first female vice president, Specioza Kazibwe, have helped make Museveni a favourite among women voters, according to recent polls.Once a darling of Western donors but now under fire from critics who say he has become increasingly autocratic, Museveni is also the favourite to win this week’s poll.But he faces his toughest election test yet against Kizza Besigye, his former doctor and comrade-in-arms who is now leader of the opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).GUERRILLA GIRLFRIEND The animosity between the two men is not just political.Besigye’s wife Winnie Byanyima has been a key figure in the opposition campaigns.Joining her husband at rallies and at most of his 25-plus court appearances to answer charges of treason and rape, she has lashed out at Museveni at every turn.The two have a long history.Their families were so close that Byanyima’s father paid the future president’s school fees, and Byanyima later became Museveni’s girlfriend and a guerrilla in the five-year bush war that brought him to power.Museveni was married to Janet at the time, and when he and Winnie fell out, Byanyima became one of his most vocal critics, first as a fiery member of parliament in their home area in western Uganda, and later as Besigye’s wife.She was jailed several times, and in her latest brush with the law she was charged with libel last month for claiming the president bribed judges in her husband’s treason trial.In typically unrepentant style, Byanyima retorted that no one could inti
midate her and threatened to expose “secrets” about what she called Museveni’s serious personal, moral, marital and parental flaws.”Let him play fair and clean up his campaign or I will have no choice but to bring documentary evidence to show what a traitor he is to his family and the whole nation,” she said.’HOT AIR’ Byanyima is expected to have a lot of influence at State House if Besigye pulls off a surprise victory.But many Ugandans say it is a pity that the only woman actually running for the top job is the one with the least political clout.Activists like Solome Kimbugwe of the Uganda Women’s Network, a non-governmental organisation, have endorsed Miria Obote, widow of Uganda’s late President Milton Obote, but the polls have given her little hope of success.After her husband was ousted by Museveni, Miria Obote spent two decades in exile in Zambia until his death in October.She returned to Uganda to bury him and took over as leader of the bickering Uganda People’s Congress party.Their son Jimmy also decided to enter politics, shaving off his dreadlocks to run for parliament.Miria Obote has campaigned hard, getting to know voters she last saw in 1985, but has been dogged by ill health and relatively small crowds at meetings, despite her rallying cry that the ‘Mother of the Nation’ has returned.Although surveys show her trailing Museveni and Besigye, Kimbugwe says Miria Obote offers the best hope for women.She accuses political parties of feeding women “hot air”.”They have engaged them but not translated what they say into reality,” she says.”We feel we are tired of lip service.”- Nampa-Reuters