Women MPs battered over pay

Dec 18, 2013

With domestic violence ravaging various parts of the country, women MPs have admitted that they have not been spared either.She noted that their husbands demand to know how much they earn.

By Joyce Namutebi

With domestic violence ravaging various parts of the country, women MPs have admitted that they have not been spared either.


 “When you talk about domestic violence, you should not talk about the village woman only. You might find that even amongst us, most of us are affected by domestic violence,” Rubirizi district woman MP, Betty Mbabazi said Tuesday.

She noted that their husbands demand to know how much they earn.

“They demand for it and will want to spend some of it because whichever money comes to the home is “ours”. When you don’t release it, that’s where problems start,” Mbabazi said at a workshop organised by the Uganda Women Parliamentary Association (UWOPA) at Imperial Royale Hotel.

Mbabazi pointed out that there is still a challenge of protecting women who come out to report domestic violence in their homes.

She was backed by Manafwa Woman MP, Sarah Kayagi, who said most of them are “silent” victims of domestic violence. Lematia Ondoru (Maracha) said even the educated women suffer, but heaped blame on women themselves.

“We are perpetrators of our own problems,” Ondoru said.

 Monicah Amoding (Female Youth) said the country loses sh77b every year due to problems associated with domestic violence. She said the Domestic Violence Act needs to be translated in various local languages.

An official from the gender based violence secretariat Brenda Aber said they were working with Uganda Law Reform Commission to ensure that the law is simplified.

 

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