Ilwanu takes Miss Uganda Eastern region

By Steven Odeke

Margaret Ilwanu was outstanding from the outset with her brief to the point answers. The crowd loved her. And so seemed the judges who comprised former Miss Uganda Sylvia ,  Miss Uganda limited motivational speaker Janat , Kezzi entertainment publicity officer Olivia  Nakitto and organizer Brenda Nanyonjo.

By the time she was crowned winner of  the Miss Uganda Eastern region last Saturday night after beating a number of 19 girls in the pageant,revellers had  already been swayed  at the event held at Crested Cranes hotel gardens, Jinja.

Margaret (center) flanked by runners up

Ilwanua,  who hails from Amuria district and a practicing graphic designer at Promotions World, never sounded like a politician reading from a scripted manifesto like many of the other girls. Organizers should start sparing us the pain of listening to contestants squalling to us cliched answers of " I promise to stop domestic violence, i promise to empower youth, I promise to end child abuse." they should be guided to spew credible answers other than telling us what they know we want to hear. Can't someone promise us she will try guiding today's young ladies into sustaining marriages, after all no one is doing it today?

Anyway, the 23 years old Ilwanu a graduate of industrial and Fine Art from Makerere University, was trailed by Ankunda Brenda, 19, and Hilda Kwaga, 24, as first and second runners up respectively. The former surprised all and sundry how she made it to the top three after hundreds of crowds doubted her age during the pageant.  But she was good on the runway. And the other thing you can't take away is that many of the girls were beautiful to the eye. It's just that few reflected the real wisdom from East.

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Contestants doing the catwalk at the Miss Uganda 2013 Eastern Region at Crested Crane hotel in Jinja PHOTO: Abu Mwesigwa

The event, partly sponsored by Vision Group's Kampala Sun and Redd's, started off at 9:30pm to jokes from comedian Alex Muhangi who co-emceed with model Amayo Sophie, one who was not good a host on the night. After judges   There were also performances from Sheeba Karungi, Aziz Azion and upstarts like the gorgeous Piyera Akwero from  but the night was stretched towards 1:30am, perhaps because Alex stole some time to try out his jokes. Stage lighting bolstered by the large white tent reflected the event positively.

 The next search is in Kampala on June 12th at Garden City Rooftop where they will be selecting the final top 20 to compete for the final crown.