Three eye Namirembe Bitamazire’s seat

Aug 13, 2010

EDUCATION minister Namirembe Bitamazire is having sleepless nights because three youthful politicians are eyeing her Butambala Woman MP seat.

BUTAMBALA WOMAN MP

By John Semakula


EDUCATION minister Namirembe Bitamazire is having sleepless nights because three youthful politicians are eyeing her Butambala Woman MP seat.

Bitamazire has been the Mpigi district Woman MP for several terms. But with the carving of Butambala district out of Mpigi, she has been left to run in a constituency that is dominated by Muslims, yet she is a Catholic.

Those eyeing Bitamazire’s seat are Mariam Nalubega, a youth MP, Aisha Kabanda, a private secretary to the President and Winfred Mutekanga, a reporter with UBC radio.

Bitamazire’s opponents say since she has been in politics from the 1970s, the time is ripe for her to quit and let the youth take over. Some of the aspirants say they were in primary school in the early 1980s when Bitamazire was education minister and an MP.

They accuse her of going back on her word because she said 2006 was the last time she was contesting for the seat.

But to Bitamazire, her experience is an asset that the new district would benefit from. Bitamazire refuses to discuss the details of her candidature. When contacted she said: “I’m in the race. Pray for me so that I win.”

Apart from Mutekanga, who is aspiring for the seat as an independent, all the other contenders are from the ruling NRM Party.

The four candidates are educated with each holding at least a bachelor’s degree.

Mutekanga graduated in mass communication from Mutesa Royal University, while Nalubega has a bachelor’s in business administration from MUBS.

Kabanda holds a masters degree in human resources from Makerere University, while Bitamazire has a masters in Education from Makerere University.

In the constituency, all four candidates are well-known, thus the choice on who will take the seat will depend on the individual voters.

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