Kamwenge’s Hashaka gets four rivals
FOUR people have expressed interest in contesting for the woman seat in Kamwenge district. The seat is currently occupied by Florence Hashaka Kabahweza. Hashaka's rivals include former MP, Adah Mehangye, whom she defeated in 2006.
By Hope Mafaranga
FOUR people have expressed interest in contesting for the woman seat in Kamwenge district. The seat is currently occupied by Florence Hashaka Kabahweza. Hashaka, an accountant, will face the former MP, Adah Mehangye, whom she defeated in 2006.
Mehangye is the current Isingiro resident district commissioner.
Others in the race are Bridget Kyomukama Kagonyera, who works with Uganda Revenue Authority in Kabale; Dorothy Nyakato, a businesswoman and Dorothy Kabaritsya Shaija, who resigned from Bunyoro-Tooro Rural Development Company (BUTO) in 2008 to prepare for the elections. Shaija has been training the locals and women groups in agriculture and microfinance.
However, the biggest battle may come from Hashaka, Shaija and Mehangye.
Mehangye, who boasts of seniority in politics, says she attracted donors from America and Korea who have assisted 84 orphans to attain education. She also claims to have built 16 houses for the widows and supporting over 258 families under her project Parents’ Concern.
Under the same project, over 1,000 people suffering from elephantiasis, asthma, malaria, diabetes have received treatment. Another 645 have been given reading glasses. She hopes to lobby for a women and children’s hospital and develop women groups.
However, some voters accuse Mehangye of showing more concern for Isingiro, her area of origin, than the constituency she represented in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Hashaka used her incumbency to interact with her constituents over the last five years. She says she donated a milk cooler to Kamwenge town council, assisted Ruhiga women group, contributed towards the construction of churches and schools. She also pushed for completion of Kabambiro bridge, lobbied for a technical college and seed school, and power extension to Kabujogyera in Kitagwenda.
She has also given solar panels to Nyabani, Mahyoro and Kichwamba health centres. Under her project, ‘go back to school with Hashaka’ many needy children have accessed education and other scholastic materials.
However, some voters accuse her of allegedly abandoning the father of her two children and becoming a second wife to another man. But she has her own defence: “I am not the first one to be a second wifeâ€.
Hashaka revealed that her new husband, Gregory Tushabe, is a caring and supportive man. He paid for her campaigns during the 2006 parliamentary elections. They later got married and no one came up to complain, she says.
“He paid bride price and my parents handed me to him officially and publicly. If anyone had a problem with me marrying Tushabe, why didn’t they complain then? Why have they waited for campaigns to bring up issues to do with my personal life?†she asks.
Hashaka maintains that people will vote for her again, basing on her hard work and achievements.
FOUR people have expressed interest in contesting for the woman seat in Kamwenge district. The seat is currently occupied by Florence Hashaka Kabahweza. Hashaka, an accountant, will face the former MP, Adah Mehangye, whom she defeated in 2006.
Mehangye is the current Isingiro resident district commissioner.
Others in the race are Bridget Kyomukama Kagonyera, who works with Uganda Revenue Authority in Kabale; Dorothy Nyakato, a businesswoman and Dorothy Kabaritsya Shaija, who resigned from Bunyoro-Tooro Rural Development Company (BUTO) in 2008 to prepare for the elections. Shaija has been training the locals and women groups in agriculture and microfinance.
However, the biggest battle may come from Hashaka, Shaija and Mehangye.
Mehangye, who boasts of seniority in politics, says she attracted donors from America and Korea who have assisted 84 orphans to attain education. She also claims to have built 16 houses for the widows and supporting over 258 families under her project Parents’ Concern.
Under the same project, over 1,000 people suffering from elephantiasis, asthma, malaria, diabetes have received treatment. Another 645 have been given reading glasses. She hopes to lobby for a women and children’s hospital and develop women groups.
However, some voters accuse Mehangye of showing more concern for Isingiro, her area of origin, than the constituency she represented in Parliament.
Meanwhile, Hashaka used her incumbency to interact with her constituents over the last five years. She says she donated a milk cooler to Kamwenge town council, assisted Ruhiga women group, contributed towards the construction of churches and schools. She also pushed for completion of Kabambiro bridge, lobbied for a technical college and seed school, and power extension to Kabujogyera in Kitagwenda.
She has also given solar panels to Nyabani, Mahyoro and Kichwamba health centres. Under her project, ‘go back to school with Hashaka’ many needy children have accessed education and other scholastic materials.
However, some voters accuse her of allegedly abandoning the father of her two children and becoming a second wife to another man. But she has her own defence: “I am not the first one to be a second wifeâ€.
Hashaka revealed that her new husband, Gregory Tushabe, is a caring and supportive man. He paid for her campaigns during the 2006 parliamentary elections. They later got married and no one came up to complain, she says.
“He paid bride price and my parents handed me to him officially and publicly. If anyone had a problem with me marrying Tushabe, why didn’t they complain then? Why have they waited for campaigns to bring up issues to do with my personal life?†she asks.
Hashaka maintains that people will vote for her again, basing on her hard work and achievements.