As the Ugandan president and his challengers prepare for a showdown at the polls on Thursday, the country’s first lady is also running for election after a campaign which has seen women politicians making remarkable progress. Janet Museveni (57) is making her first foray into politics by running as a parliamentary candidate in rural Ruhama in western Uganda.
On a continent where men have dominated post-independence politics, the past year has seen the beginnings of a gender shift. As well as President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in Liberia, there is Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, South Africa’s Deputy Prime Minister, who joins two other prominent female leaders in Southern Africa: Zimbabwe’s Deputy President, Joyce Mujuru, and Mozambique’s Prime Minister, Luisa Diogo.
Critics say Uganda’s first lady has an unfair advantage: not many candidates have the president campaigning on their behalf the weekend before an election.
But in an interview with the Guardian, Ms Museveni (57) said she was running for office to oust an ineffective opposition MP, Augustine Ruzindana, a defector from the ruling party.
”I don’t see why that [being first lady] should be a problem,” she said. ”My opponent has been an MP for 15 years and he should have done something, to say: ‘I did this.’ The fact is that he didn’t do that much. I think he really should have nothing to complain about.”
Museveni is a born-again Christian who promotes abstinence as the way to counter HIV/Aids, and once held a rally for virgins at a Kampala school. She claimed that opponents of her views had a vested interest in the condom industry.
”I think people who criticise my stand on abstinence are people who have companies, with something to benefit from what they sell. People who have families know that this is the best way to educate their young. Don’t get into these grey areas at all, remain outside these areas. They are pure and wholesome and know there is no way they can get HIV/Aids.”
The Ugandan election boasts three major female political players. As well as Museveni, there is a presidential candidate, Miria Obote, the widow of former president Milton Obote, and opposition candidate Kizza Besigye’s wife Winnie Byanyima has been part of his campaign.
During the war that brought President Yoweri Museveni to power Byanyima was his girlfriend and companion. But the two fell out and she has since become one of his fiercest critics. Last month she was charged with libel for claiming that the military had bribed judges to defer her husband’s release from prison, where he was held on treason charges.
The ruling party has also courted female voters, endorsing Africa’s first female Vice-President, Specioza Kazibwe, who was elected in 1994. While vice-president she accused her husband of domestic violence, a common crime in Uganda, and sought a highly public divorce.
”I don’t know whether my example is going to inspire women for politics,” said Museveni. ”You must understand that women in this country have had so many role models, especially at the level at which I am running.”
In Ruhama, a region of rolling hills, plump cattle and imposing churches, Museveni’s faith strikes a chord among the more devout. Olive Stempson, a Baptist pastor, agrees with the first lady on condoms. ”The curse of HIV came because people were not obedient to God. When you teach people to carry condoms, we may be encouraging immorality.”
But for other voters Museveni may be tarnished by association with her husband. ”What annoys me is that when she is here, it is seen as the president being here, not a candidate for MP,” said Amos Tumusiime (24) a cafe owner.
In fact, Museveni initially opposed his wife’s wish to stand for Parliament, as did her son Muhoozi. However, the president now campaigns for her.
Mr Museveni held the ruling party’s final rally on Tuesday, a day after the main opposition party cancelled its closing rally when riot police fired teargas at hundreds of supporters and picketed the venue.
The latest opinion poll, conducted between February 6 and 11, shows support for Museveni at 47%, whereas Besigye has 36%. Failure to secure an absolute majority will trigger a run-off vote. — Guardian Unlimited Â