Museveni is pioneer of women emancipation

Feb 16, 2006

I read with amazement a story in <i>The Monitor</i> of February 13 under the headline “Museveni Not Pioneer of Women Emancipation.” The paper quoted Winnie Byanyima who said, “women empowerment was initiated in the country by a group of 50 women delegates in the Constituent Assembly.” What a

Moses Byaruhanga

I read with amazement a story in The Monitor of February 13 under the headline “Museveni Not Pioneer of Women Emancipation.” The paper quoted Winnie Byanyima who said, “women empowerment was initiated in the country by a group of 50 women delegates in the Constituent Assembly.” What a distortion!

The Constituent Assembly (CA) Winnie is talking about took place in 1994-95. If Winnie is genuine, as she would want the public to believe, she should tell us how she got the 50 women to chair in the CA. Did she appoint them to the CA? Winnie went to the CA as a directly elected representative but she should remember that each district was represented in the CA by a woman delegate. This was contained in the law under which CA delegates were elected. That’s how Winnie had 50 women to chair in the CA.

President Museveni even made sure that the CA was co-chaired by a woman, Prof. Victoria Mwaka, not because of Winnie but because of Movement policy to involve women. The question to ask is how did each district get a woman delegate in the CA? The answer is that the NRC (Parliament) passed the law in question and that law was not proposed by a private Member of the NRC. It was presented by the government led by Mr. Museveni.

Before the CA, already there were women representing districts in NRC. This was a deliberate policy by the Movement led by President Museveni to make women part and parcel of decision making. If Winnie is not aware of this, let her ask Miria Matembe who was in the NRC representing Mbarara district.


Winnie claims that women rights were provided by the Constitution and that President Museveni was not a member of the CA. As already pointed out above, before CA women were in NRC and even Cabinet. During the CA, Dr. Kazibwe was appointed the first women Vice-President not at the request of CA but to involve women in decision-making. The Movement government had already put in place the RCs to which women were represented, from the village up to the district and Parliament.

The Movement government also introduced women councils. Further, in order to enhance education of the girl child, President Museveni introduced 1.5 additional points for girls to enter Makerere University.

The President had already started decampaining women circumcision in Sebei. President Museveni advocated for the rights of women including denying their husbands sex if they suspected them to be sleeping around with HIV-infected persons.

Museveni is pioneer of women emancipation

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