Bushenyi Women's Race Heats Up
Feb 18, 2004
<b>Ntwirenabo eyes bigger things </b><br>SHE has been in the district council for two terms. She no longer wants to sit there. She is eyeing something bigger, something better –– Parliament.
By Simon Mugenyi
The Bushenyi Woman Member of Parliament by-elections are taking centre stage in the district.
No sooner had the campaigns started than one of the six candidates opted out.
Nomination of the President’s press secretary Mary Karooro Okurut and Juliet Ntwirenabo, an LC5 councillor, has caused excitement in the race.
Hope Kabirisi, the former Entebbe deputy Resident District Commissioner, stood down on the eve of the campaign day on Sunday.
It is believed that Okurut is backed by strongman Eliab Kanyamuhanga, the LC3 chairperson of Kyabugimbi sub-county and a UPC diehard.
“He has never supported or agreed with President Yoweri Museveni or the movement on any issue, but what has surprised people is his backing of Okurut,†a local said.
Many big shots in the district are behind particular candidates though they have not come out publicly to declare so. Makaru, the former LC5 chairperson, is also said to be behind Okurut.
Before Kabirisi stood down, it was believed that one of the presidential advisers in the area was supporting her. Kabirisi stood down during an emergency meeting in Kampala on February 8, the reason being, “not to divide the Movement votes.â€
The elections are scheduled for February 27. Campaigns begun on Monday, February 9. The Electoral Commission (EC) has agreed that non-citizens would be allowed to vote, as long as they hold positions in the electoral colleges.
People who hold more than one position in the electoral colleges will be allowed to vote twice. The electoral colleges for this case comprise LC1 to LC 3 councillors.
Other candidates are Harriet Mushega, a procurement assistant with the ministry of health, Sarah Bireete, a secretary general of Pan- African Movement and Maclean Kyamutetere Natukunda, a teacher at St. Kaggwa Secondary School in Bushenyi.
Before the campaigns had started, some candidates were worried about foul play. Though an EC official assured them of orderliness, some were still dissatisfied.
In a consultative meeting between candidates and the EC officials, some members raised concerns that tycoon Hassan Bassajjabalaba had been cited in the company of one of the candidates and accused him of ferrying voters in the past elections. On that particular occasion, Bassajjabalaba kicked a reporter working with The New Vision sister paper, Orumuri. The case is now with the Bushenyi Police who say they had sent the file to the Directorate of Public Prosecution in Mbarara.
Candidates had asked Opar Malakowang, the Bushenyi returning officer to suspend Bassajjabalaba from the district until elections are over.
However, Malakowang said Bassajjabalaba could not be suspended from the district because he is a resident of Bushenyi.
As a measure to prevent chaos in the elections, the EC has changed the form of the campaigns. This time candidates will not hold group rallies as it has been in the past. This time, each candidate will hold her rally in a different area.
Past elections in Bushenyi have been characterised by chaos. intimidation of voters, buying off voters and allegations of election rigging.
Religion has played a big factor in determining one’s support in a particular area. The Anglican-Catholic divide is the most noticeable. Some of the reformists’ are divided because some of them are taking the issue of religion too far.
Candidates who are not married in Bushenyi are not getting favours from a certain section of people.
However, some analysts say such issues are too flimsy to affect the election result since voting will be by electoral colleges.
“Voters in the electoral colleges are beyond such petty issues like religion, marriage and ideologies, since they lead people of heterogeneous backgrounds,†an analyst said.
Talk of political ideologies, all candidates claim to be movement supporters. And on the issue of the third term, they say they have to seek the views of the people they are going to represent.
Elections in the past have caused hatred among candidates and their supporters. Igara East MP Richard Nduhuura says it takes long to heal such wounds left behind. He urged the contestants to make sure they do not divide the people.
“There is no reason to fight. Let it (the election exercise) be peaceful,†Nduhuura told candidates while meeting officials from the EC.
The Bushenyi Parliamentary Group said they are not supporting anybody in the race, but are willing to listen to whichever candidate seeks their advisory services.
The Bushenyi District Council, the district chairperson, Longino Ndyanabo, and the speaker, Odo Tayebwa, also said the council would not support any candidate. However, several council members are busy soliciting votes for their own –– Ntwirenabo.
Posters of some candidates have been vandalised. In Ishaka town, most of Karooro’s posters have been torn.
None of Mushenga’s posters have been tampered with while other candidates have few still up in the town.
In the last women elections, the two contestants ended up in court on allegations of election malpractice.
Similarly, after the last LC5 polls, it took President Museveni to reconcile the current chairperson and the loser, Samson Bitahwa. He advised them to forget about what happened in the elections and work for development.
Nevertheless, many people are confident that this time election violence will be minimised.
Odo says :“It may be minimised since they are not going as a group.
besides, people can no longer be bull-dozed. they will give them money and eat and vote for candidates of their choice,†he says.
Though it is still too early to gauge who will come out victorious, most eyes are on four candidates, Karooro, Mushega, Ntwirenabo and Kyamutetere. Let us wait and see.
Ntwirenabo eyes bigger things
SHE has been in the district council for two terms. She no longer wants to sit there. She is eyeing something bigger, something better –– Parliament.
Juliet Ntwirenabo wants to represent her people on a national level –– to climb another ladder in her life.
Ntwirenabo has represented the people of Kyamuhunga sub-county in Igara county in the Bushenyi District Council since 1998. Now she wants to move further. She says she had planned for it since 2001, but had been waiting for 2006.
She says she has been serving people on many councils, especially the women councils. “Now I want to go high and talk for my people,†she says.
Born on December 21, 1961, Ntwirenabo believes many things, especially on the side of the youth and women, are static because many leaders have not given priority to them, something she wants to change.
She says many people in the country are suffering due to poverty so she wants to go to parliament and see how she can help them boost their household incomes.
Asked whey she can help people only when she is in parliament, she says that in parliament she can do it for the whole nation and not for a margin of people. She feels she can now serve the whole country after serving at the district level for many years.
Ntwirenabo has done many things for the people of Bushenyi. She says she expects a lot of support because she has united and worked with people harmoniously.
There is no doubt that if Ntwirenabo goes back to stand in Kyamuhunga, she would get a landslide win. She has seen the residents increase their household incomes, send their children to school and improve their livelihood by growing tea.
She has supported the tea growers as one of the directors and former chairperson board of directors of Igara Tea Growers, by giving people seedlings and other inputs.
However, she still has to convince the whole district that she can perform.
Ntwirenabo, who holds a diploma in accountancy from the former Nkumba College of Commerce, and soon to complete her bachelor of commerce degree of Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi, is currently the chairperson of the Bushenyi district finance committee.
As the chairperson, she is known for her initiation of a survey to find out why people were not paying taxes. It was found that many people were willing to pay taxes but they did not have the money.
She initiated vanilla growing to add to coffee and tea, as sources of income for the poor so that they could pay tax. This, together with mobilising people to pay taxes, had seen tax collection in the district increase tremendously.
She says she is an independent person but many members of the Bushenyi council are behind her, many doing the kakuyege for her. However, none of them is a voter as voting is under the electoral colleges. Some say Ntwirenabo is not a good debater and that in the council, she rarely contributes to debates. “It is because she is a performer in her area that she has been voted twice,†argues a voter.
Ntwirenabo is a Catholic, and a good number in Bushenyi are Catholics. Some big people in the council are seeking support for her because of that fact, but this seems not to have gone well with a section of people.
Karooro bows to demands
AN academician, presidential press secretary and a writer, now Mary Busingye Karooro Okurut wants to be a legislator.
She says she is not standing because she is looking for employment but rather because many people have asked her to stand and she has bowed to serve her people.
Her emphasis she says will be on poverty alleviation in households, promoting tourism and initiating ways of income generation in homes. Karooro says she is touched that even though women and youth have committees, they do not have enough support. She therefore wants to use her voice, which is well heard and respected, to fight for their cause.
She says she has visited villages in Bushenyi several times, which has helped her know what is in the district –– what they grow and where the market is.
The Igara-born, Okurut is an old student of Bweranyangi Girls School. She believes education should be used as the main method of fighting poverty and backwardness. She plans to initiate programmes for students who dropout of school because of different reasons. This she plans to do by encouraging handwork and business, some of which she has already embarked on in the district. Karooro participated in the 1994 Constituency Assembly elections and lost. Despite the loss, she continued helping and working with her people in Bushenyi on developmental programmes.
She is married and has her people at heart. She attends many functions, especially fundraising for schools in Bushenyi, and when not in the country, she makes it a point to send her contribution. A member of the proposed Bushenyi University, Karooro says Bushenyi needs a person with vision to show others the way forward. Karooro has a diploma in education, a degree in Literature and a Master’s Degree in Literature.
The deputy chairperson of Kampala International University Council, Karooro is the most educated, most authoritative and most travelled among the candidates. She has the the backing of many business people in Bushenyi and Kampala including tycoon Hassan Bassajjabalaba. Some big companies are backing her financially.
She is a former lecturer at Makerere University. However, some people say that since she is not married in Bushenyi, she may abandon them after giving her their votes. But in the midst of all this, Karooro is confident of winning the elections.
In all these and many more she says she has never been sacked or demoted but only promoted. That is the kind of person she is and Bushenyi needs.
From chalk, Kyamutetere to write laws
AFTER doing chalk work for seven years, she has moved out to aspire for a seat in Parliament. She says she is a teacher and therefore a commoner who knows the problem of a common person.
A teacher at St. Kaggwa Secondary School in Bushenyi, she says she wants to represent the people who fall in the same category as teachers.
She says many of the people who want to go to parliament to represent the people of Bushenyi have many responsibilities, hence unable to represent the electorates as they promise. “This is not because they are incapable, but simply because they do not have enough time.â€
She believes she has less responsibilities and therefore able to represent the people of Bushenyi the way they wish.
Kyamutetere says she knows where the electorates are and that is where she has been going –– deep in the remote areas of Bushenyi where others have not gone yet. The 32-year-old Kyamutetere is among the founders of UWESO Bushenyi branch. She says her mother, Mrs. Kyamutetere started the branch when she was about 13 years old. Kyamutetere also says she is among the founder members of Bushenyi District Teachers Association. She initiated a Neem tree project in the district that has spread in different parts.
She is married in Ruhindi to Fred Mutungi, a teacher at Makerere College School. She owns three maize milling machines. She believes over 1,000 students have passed through her hands and this is where she believes votes will come from.
Kyamutetere represented Kakoba National Teacher’s College (NTC) at the Uganda National Students’ Association. She was at the NTC from 1994- 1997, pursuing a diploma in Education. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Education at Makerere University. She did her O’ Levels at St. Michael High School in Bushenyi, where she was a headgirl. She did her A’ Levels at St Joseph Nsambya Girls School, where she was a sports prefect. She says there are well- wishers, who have been donating money to her to run her campaigns. She has lived in Bushenyi most of her life, which she says is an advantage because she is known to many people.
Kyamutetere says she has participated in numerous events in the district, a factor that has made people see the good in her. Religion is playing a big part in Bushenyi elections. Kyamutetere says since she shares two religions –– Anglican and Roman Catholic, it is an advantage on her part. She is a Catholic and her husband is an Anglican.
Although she says she a movementist, she adds that she has interest in the Reform Agenda. She is the only candidate who who has publicly said she has interest in the reformists.
Bireete is back for the seat
AFTER losing the 2001 Bushenyi Woman Member of Parliament election, she has come back, this time sure and confident of winning.
Sarah Bireete, who does not want to disclose her age, could be the youngest candidate in the race. In the 2001 elections, she was accused of being young. She was told to wait for another time. Now the other time has come. Is she going to jump over the hurdle? Time will tell.
The fact that she stood in the last elections won her some supporters and she says she is adding on more.
Bireete claims she lost in the 2001 because the women elections were rigged. This time she is confident such will not happen. “The Electoral Commission is more transparent these days, compared to 2001. Bireete says that she is confident of winning because of the plans she has for the people of Bushenyi. She initiated a micro-savings association for the ladies after getting entandikwa with organisations she is associated to like the Pan African Movement, where she is a general secretary. she started an organisation known as Great Lakes League, which she heads, which is particularly to help the youth learn about pan-Africanism.
You can call her an innovator. She is always thinking of something new to start that is service and profit-based.
Bireete is the proprietor of Bwindi Juggle Tours and travel, an organisation that she started in 1999 to facilitate transport in the country especially for tourists.
She says she is working with a Kenyan non-governmental organisation called FAIDA (a Swahili word for profits), which lends money at a low interest rate in Kenya.
She says this will help parents in Bushenyi to get loans for school fees for their children and get market for their crops so that they do not rot before getting to the market.
The organisation, which she has already registered in Uganda, also helps to sponsor health schemes.
Bireete, who is secretive about her husband’s name and the number of children she has, says if she goes to parliament, she will be in a better position to start or influence business organisations to the district to help in the fight against poverty.
A former student of Bweranyangi Girls School, Bireete's dream is to see Bushenyi and Uganda at large change into “a dream world that everyone desires, in development and modernisation.â€
She has a degree in Commerce from Makerere University.
She wants to promote government plans to sensitise the masses on various issues and to promote tourist attraction in Bushenyi, promote nutrition in children and adults and to promote adult literacy.
Although she says it is the people giving her financial support, the Pan African Movementists would want to see their own in Parliament.
However, Bireete is accused of having many debts that she failed to pay the people she used in the last elections.
Mushega wants to emulate Amanya
HARRIET Mushega is among the five ladies who are aspiring for the Bushenyi Woman parliamentary seat.
Mushega is a sister to Amanya Mushega, the former MP for Igara East in Bushenyi, who is now the Secretary General of the East African Community.
The main reason she has stood is that many times when people’s representatives go to parliament, they hardly come back home to help the people who sent them there. Thus, she says she “wants to implement the many things that politicians have promised but have not done.†She wants to be different.
Mushega says she did not stand in 2001 because she wanted to give a chance to Benerdette Bigirwa, the late woman MP for Bushenyi. Mushega has been waiting for 2006.
At her nomination day recently, she came with a fleet of vehicles, with numerous men, women, youth children and the very old.
Mushega works with the ministry of health in the procurement department. She is not fully resident in Bushenyi. Some people say she is just a visitor in Bushenyi, a disadvantage on her side.
In 1993, she joined the then National College of Business Studies, now Makerere University Business School where she completed with diploma in Business in 1994. She has since then completed a course in Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supplies UK.
Mushega, wants, among other things to promote adult literacy, good nutrition in children.
When the NRM government came into power in 1986, she worked as a store keeper in the Army shop before going for studies in 1991 to 1993.
In 1994 a wife to late Robert Kangina and a mother to two children, worked with the Ugandan Veterans Assistance Board and as a Mukono district book keeper until 1997.
She says she wants to work with the people of Bushenyi to improve the well-being of the people especially health. She says Bushenyi has the highest number of stunted people “yet they have everything.â€
Ends
The Bushenyi Woman Member of Parliament by-elections are taking centre stage in the district.
No sooner had the campaigns started than one of the six candidates opted out.
Nomination of the President’s press secretary Mary Karooro Okurut and Juliet Ntwirenabo, an LC5 councillor, has caused excitement in the race.
Hope Kabirisi, the former Entebbe deputy Resident District Commissioner, stood down on the eve of the campaign day on Sunday.
It is believed that Okurut is backed by strongman Eliab Kanyamuhanga, the LC3 chairperson of Kyabugimbi sub-county and a UPC diehard.
“He has never supported or agreed with President Yoweri Museveni or the movement on any issue, but what has surprised people is his backing of Okurut,†a local said.
Many big shots in the district are behind particular candidates though they have not come out publicly to declare so. Makaru, the former LC5 chairperson, is also said to be behind Okurut.
Before Kabirisi stood down, it was believed that one of the presidential advisers in the area was supporting her. Kabirisi stood down during an emergency meeting in Kampala on February 8, the reason being, “not to divide the Movement votes.â€
The elections are scheduled for February 27. Campaigns begun on Monday, February 9. The Electoral Commission (EC) has agreed that non-citizens would be allowed to vote, as long as they hold positions in the electoral colleges.
People who hold more than one position in the electoral colleges will be allowed to vote twice. The electoral colleges for this case comprise LC1 to LC 3 councillors.
Other candidates are Harriet Mushega, a procurement assistant with the ministry of health, Sarah Bireete, a secretary general of Pan- African Movement and Maclean Kyamutetere Natukunda, a teacher at St. Kaggwa Secondary School in Bushenyi.
Before the campaigns had started, some candidates were worried about foul play. Though an EC official assured them of orderliness, some were still dissatisfied.
In a consultative meeting between candidates and the EC officials, some members raised concerns that tycoon Hassan Bassajjabalaba had been cited in the company of one of the candidates and accused him of ferrying voters in the past elections. On that particular occasion, Bassajjabalaba kicked a reporter working with The New Vision sister paper, Orumuri. The case is now with the Bushenyi Police who say they had sent the file to the Directorate of Public Prosecution in Mbarara.
Candidates had asked Opar Malakowang, the Bushenyi returning officer to suspend Bassajjabalaba from the district until elections are over.
However, Malakowang said Bassajjabalaba could not be suspended from the district because he is a resident of Bushenyi.
As a measure to prevent chaos in the elections, the EC has changed the form of the campaigns. This time candidates will not hold group rallies as it has been in the past. This time, each candidate will hold her rally in a different area.
Past elections in Bushenyi have been characterised by chaos. intimidation of voters, buying off voters and allegations of election rigging.
Religion has played a big factor in determining one’s support in a particular area. The Anglican-Catholic divide is the most noticeable. Some of the reformists’ are divided because some of them are taking the issue of religion too far.
Candidates who are not married in Bushenyi are not getting favours from a certain section of people.
However, some analysts say such issues are too flimsy to affect the election result since voting will be by electoral colleges.
“Voters in the electoral colleges are beyond such petty issues like religion, marriage and ideologies, since they lead people of heterogeneous backgrounds,†an analyst said.
Talk of political ideologies, all candidates claim to be movement supporters. And on the issue of the third term, they say they have to seek the views of the people they are going to represent.
Elections in the past have caused hatred among candidates and their supporters. Igara East MP Richard Nduhuura says it takes long to heal such wounds left behind. He urged the contestants to make sure they do not divide the people.
“There is no reason to fight. Let it (the election exercise) be peaceful,†Nduhuura told candidates while meeting officials from the EC.
The Bushenyi Parliamentary Group said they are not supporting anybody in the race, but are willing to listen to whichever candidate seeks their advisory services.
The Bushenyi District Council, the district chairperson, Longino Ndyanabo, and the speaker, Odo Tayebwa, also said the council would not support any candidate. However, several council members are busy soliciting votes for their own –– Ntwirenabo.
Posters of some candidates have been vandalised. In Ishaka town, most of Karooro’s posters have been torn.
None of Mushenga’s posters have been tampered with while other candidates have few still up in the town.
In the last women elections, the two contestants ended up in court on allegations of election malpractice.
Similarly, after the last LC5 polls, it took President Museveni to reconcile the current chairperson and the loser, Samson Bitahwa. He advised them to forget about what happened in the elections and work for development.
Nevertheless, many people are confident that this time election violence will be minimised.
Odo says :“It may be minimised since they are not going as a group.
besides, people can no longer be bull-dozed. they will give them money and eat and vote for candidates of their choice,†he says.
Though it is still too early to gauge who will come out victorious, most eyes are on four candidates, Karooro, Mushega, Ntwirenabo and Kyamutetere. Let us wait and see.
Ntwirenabo eyes bigger things
SHE has been in the district council for two terms. She no longer wants to sit there. She is eyeing something bigger, something better –– Parliament.
Juliet Ntwirenabo wants to represent her people on a national level –– to climb another ladder in her life.
Ntwirenabo has represented the people of Kyamuhunga sub-county in Igara county in the Bushenyi District Council since 1998. Now she wants to move further. She says she had planned for it since 2001, but had been waiting for 2006.
She says she has been serving people on many councils, especially the women councils. “Now I want to go high and talk for my people,†she says.
Born on December 21, 1961, Ntwirenabo believes many things, especially on the side of the youth and women, are static because many leaders have not given priority to them, something she wants to change.
She says many people in the country are suffering due to poverty so she wants to go to parliament and see how she can help them boost their household incomes.
Asked whey she can help people only when she is in parliament, she says that in parliament she can do it for the whole nation and not for a margin of people. She feels she can now serve the whole country after serving at the district level for many years.
Ntwirenabo has done many things for the people of Bushenyi. She says she expects a lot of support because she has united and worked with people harmoniously.
There is no doubt that if Ntwirenabo goes back to stand in Kyamuhunga, she would get a landslide win. She has seen the residents increase their household incomes, send their children to school and improve their livelihood by growing tea.
She has supported the tea growers as one of the directors and former chairperson board of directors of Igara Tea Growers, by giving people seedlings and other inputs.
However, she still has to convince the whole district that she can perform.
Ntwirenabo, who holds a diploma in accountancy from the former Nkumba College of Commerce, and soon to complete her bachelor of commerce degree of Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi, is currently the chairperson of the Bushenyi district finance committee.
As the chairperson, she is known for her initiation of a survey to find out why people were not paying taxes. It was found that many people were willing to pay taxes but they did not have the money.
She initiated vanilla growing to add to coffee and tea, as sources of income for the poor so that they could pay tax. This, together with mobilising people to pay taxes, had seen tax collection in the district increase tremendously.
She says she is an independent person but many members of the Bushenyi council are behind her, many doing the kakuyege for her. However, none of them is a voter as voting is under the electoral colleges. Some say Ntwirenabo is not a good debater and that in the council, she rarely contributes to debates. “It is because she is a performer in her area that she has been voted twice,†argues a voter.
Ntwirenabo is a Catholic, and a good number in Bushenyi are Catholics. Some big people in the council are seeking support for her because of that fact, but this seems not to have gone well with a section of people.
Karooro bows to demands
AN academician, presidential press secretary and a writer, now Mary Busingye Karooro Okurut wants to be a legislator.
She says she is not standing because she is looking for employment but rather because many people have asked her to stand and she has bowed to serve her people.
Her emphasis she says will be on poverty alleviation in households, promoting tourism and initiating ways of income generation in homes. Karooro says she is touched that even though women and youth have committees, they do not have enough support. She therefore wants to use her voice, which is well heard and respected, to fight for their cause.
She says she has visited villages in Bushenyi several times, which has helped her know what is in the district –– what they grow and where the market is.
The Igara-born, Okurut is an old student of Bweranyangi Girls School. She believes education should be used as the main method of fighting poverty and backwardness. She plans to initiate programmes for students who dropout of school because of different reasons. This she plans to do by encouraging handwork and business, some of which she has already embarked on in the district. Karooro participated in the 1994 Constituency Assembly elections and lost. Despite the loss, she continued helping and working with her people in Bushenyi on developmental programmes.
She is married and has her people at heart. She attends many functions, especially fundraising for schools in Bushenyi, and when not in the country, she makes it a point to send her contribution. A member of the proposed Bushenyi University, Karooro says Bushenyi needs a person with vision to show others the way forward. Karooro has a diploma in education, a degree in Literature and a Master’s Degree in Literature.
The deputy chairperson of Kampala International University Council, Karooro is the most educated, most authoritative and most travelled among the candidates. She has the the backing of many business people in Bushenyi and Kampala including tycoon Hassan Bassajjabalaba. Some big companies are backing her financially.
She is a former lecturer at Makerere University. However, some people say that since she is not married in Bushenyi, she may abandon them after giving her their votes. But in the midst of all this, Karooro is confident of winning the elections.
In all these and many more she says she has never been sacked or demoted but only promoted. That is the kind of person she is and Bushenyi needs.
From chalk, Kyamutetere to write laws
AFTER doing chalk work for seven years, she has moved out to aspire for a seat in Parliament. She says she is a teacher and therefore a commoner who knows the problem of a common person.
A teacher at St. Kaggwa Secondary School in Bushenyi, she says she wants to represent the people who fall in the same category as teachers.
She says many of the people who want to go to parliament to represent the people of Bushenyi have many responsibilities, hence unable to represent the electorates as they promise. “This is not because they are incapable, but simply because they do not have enough time.â€
She believes she has less responsibilities and therefore able to represent the people of Bushenyi the way they wish.
Kyamutetere says she knows where the electorates are and that is where she has been going –– deep in the remote areas of Bushenyi where others have not gone yet. The 32-year-old Kyamutetere is among the founders of UWESO Bushenyi branch. She says her mother, Mrs. Kyamutetere started the branch when she was about 13 years old. Kyamutetere also says she is among the founder members of Bushenyi District Teachers Association. She initiated a Neem tree project in the district that has spread in different parts.
She is married in Ruhindi to Fred Mutungi, a teacher at Makerere College School. She owns three maize milling machines. She believes over 1,000 students have passed through her hands and this is where she believes votes will come from.
Kyamutetere represented Kakoba National Teacher’s College (NTC) at the Uganda National Students’ Association. She was at the NTC from 1994- 1997, pursuing a diploma in Education. She is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Education at Makerere University. She did her O’ Levels at St. Michael High School in Bushenyi, where she was a headgirl. She did her A’ Levels at St Joseph Nsambya Girls School, where she was a sports prefect. She says there are well- wishers, who have been donating money to her to run her campaigns. She has lived in Bushenyi most of her life, which she says is an advantage because she is known to many people.
Kyamutetere says she has participated in numerous events in the district, a factor that has made people see the good in her. Religion is playing a big part in Bushenyi elections. Kyamutetere says since she shares two religions –– Anglican and Roman Catholic, it is an advantage on her part. She is a Catholic and her husband is an Anglican.
Although she says she a movementist, she adds that she has interest in the Reform Agenda. She is the only candidate who who has publicly said she has interest in the reformists.
Bireete is back for the seat
AFTER losing the 2001 Bushenyi Woman Member of Parliament election, she has come back, this time sure and confident of winning.
Sarah Bireete, who does not want to disclose her age, could be the youngest candidate in the race. In the 2001 elections, she was accused of being young. She was told to wait for another time. Now the other time has come. Is she going to jump over the hurdle? Time will tell.
The fact that she stood in the last elections won her some supporters and she says she is adding on more.
Bireete claims she lost in the 2001 because the women elections were rigged. This time she is confident such will not happen. “The Electoral Commission is more transparent these days, compared to 2001. Bireete says that she is confident of winning because of the plans she has for the people of Bushenyi. She initiated a micro-savings association for the ladies after getting entandikwa with organisations she is associated to like the Pan African Movement, where she is a general secretary. she started an organisation known as Great Lakes League, which she heads, which is particularly to help the youth learn about pan-Africanism.
You can call her an innovator. She is always thinking of something new to start that is service and profit-based.
Bireete is the proprietor of Bwindi Juggle Tours and travel, an organisation that she started in 1999 to facilitate transport in the country especially for tourists.
She says she is working with a Kenyan non-governmental organisation called FAIDA (a Swahili word for profits), which lends money at a low interest rate in Kenya.
She says this will help parents in Bushenyi to get loans for school fees for their children and get market for their crops so that they do not rot before getting to the market.
The organisation, which she has already registered in Uganda, also helps to sponsor health schemes.
Bireete, who is secretive about her husband’s name and the number of children she has, says if she goes to parliament, she will be in a better position to start or influence business organisations to the district to help in the fight against poverty.
A former student of Bweranyangi Girls School, Bireete's dream is to see Bushenyi and Uganda at large change into “a dream world that everyone desires, in development and modernisation.â€
She has a degree in Commerce from Makerere University.
She wants to promote government plans to sensitise the masses on various issues and to promote tourist attraction in Bushenyi, promote nutrition in children and adults and to promote adult literacy.
Although she says it is the people giving her financial support, the Pan African Movementists would want to see their own in Parliament.
However, Bireete is accused of having many debts that she failed to pay the people she used in the last elections.
Mushega wants to emulate Amanya
HARRIET Mushega is among the five ladies who are aspiring for the Bushenyi Woman parliamentary seat.
Mushega is a sister to Amanya Mushega, the former MP for Igara East in Bushenyi, who is now the Secretary General of the East African Community.
The main reason she has stood is that many times when people’s representatives go to parliament, they hardly come back home to help the people who sent them there. Thus, she says she “wants to implement the many things that politicians have promised but have not done.†She wants to be different.
Mushega says she did not stand in 2001 because she wanted to give a chance to Benerdette Bigirwa, the late woman MP for Bushenyi. Mushega has been waiting for 2006.
At her nomination day recently, she came with a fleet of vehicles, with numerous men, women, youth children and the very old.
Mushega works with the ministry of health in the procurement department. She is not fully resident in Bushenyi. Some people say she is just a visitor in Bushenyi, a disadvantage on her side.
In 1993, she joined the then National College of Business Studies, now Makerere University Business School where she completed with diploma in Business in 1994. She has since then completed a course in Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supplies UK.
Mushega, wants, among other things to promote adult literacy, good nutrition in children.
When the NRM government came into power in 1986, she worked as a store keeper in the Army shop before going for studies in 1991 to 1993.
In 1994 a wife to late Robert Kangina and a mother to two children, worked with the Ugandan Veterans Assistance Board and as a Mukono district book keeper until 1997.
She says she wants to work with the people of Bushenyi to improve the well-being of the people especially health. She says Bushenyi has the highest number of stunted people “yet they have everything.â€
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