Kadaga gets Commonwealth job

By Vision reporter

The Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga was on Wednesday elected the chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians (CWP)-International.

She defeated Lisa Baker, an MP from western Australia at the 59th Commonwealth Parliamentary Association International Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The CWP, a sub-structure of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, was founded in 1911.

Its work focuses mainly on the fields of good governance, democracy, elections and human rights, and promoting awareness of parliamentary democracy.

Kadaga was nominated for the post by South Africa, and seconded by Singapore and Tanzania CPA branches.

In her new position, the Kadaga’s work will involve overseeing women affairs in parliaments in the 54 Commonwealth countries.

She is also expected to promote the objectives of CWP which centre around advocating for the increase of female representation in parliaments and working towards mainstreaming gender within all CPA activities and programmes.

Another objective is facilitating the networking of women parliamentarians for the socio-economic and political development in the Commonwealth.

Kadaga is the first female to be elected Speaker in the history of Parliament in Uganda. She succeeded Edward Ssekandi, who served as speaker between 2001 and 2011.

She is also the current Member of Parliament (MP) for the Kamuli District Women's Constituency, Busoga sub-region, a position she has served in since 1989.

Education

Kadaga attended Namasagali College for her high school education. She graduated with a law degree (LLB) from Makerere University in 1978.

She went on to obtain the Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Center in Kampala in 1979.
 In 2000, she obtained the Diploma in Women's Law from the University of Zimbabwe.

In 2003, she obtained the degree of Master of Arts (MA), specializing in Women's Law, also from the University of Zimbabwe.