Over the weekend I awoke to a disorienting article on my phone news reporting app: ‘I’M READY TO MARRY NANTABA AS SECOND WIFE: NUP Legislator Vows as Kayunga Campaigns Turn Violent’ (Onobwino). What is this? I asked myself. Is Nantaba campaigning for marriage or for a political position? I was forced to read on.
Charles Tebandeke, the Bbale County MP was fed up with Aida Nantaba’s political campaign strategies and was offering her marriage. This was his contemplated solution to get her out of the political tangles in Kayunga district. But these are political rivals (Tibandeke – NUP, Nantaba – NRM). Can they even sleep on the same bed? Even Jimmy Akena and Betty Amongi, who are already married back in Lira district, are still struggling with getting a balance between love and political divergence. How then would this sour start hold any marriage together? It struck me that the ‘Onobwino’ story was contributing to a growing re-birth of an old culture – ‘a woman’s place is in the domestic – kitchen, home and bed’.
When a battle intensifies all sorts of weaponry are tried out. In the Kayunga political battle, where a man is pitted against a woman, two forces have come against each other. On the one hand is NUP flamboyantly praised and defended by an energetic youthful voice and on the other is NRM posing the macro level incumbency hurdle – money, institutional influence and protection. With this background, Tebandeke and Nantaba meet on the battlefield to win the votes that will guarantee their re-entry into parliament. Each with a portfolio of back up to secure success. So how does marriage get into the picture?
A Bazooka that will level all resistance to the ground. Even Tebandeke detests the very thought of being in marriage with Nantaba. He was pondering “taking this painful decision after establishing that as a young man, marrying Nantaba is the only remaining option that is going to help resolve the ongoing political fights between her and other young leaders in the district.” Nantaba must be reminded that she is a woman. Nantaba is ‘only but a rib taken out of a man’s body, she belongs under a man – as a wife and not a political rival’. But if Tebandeke is a good catholic as the story depicts he must also be aware that our Lord Jesus gently defended Mary’s stay in the counsel room where great ideas were being exchanged and did not encourage her to rush back to the kitchen, join Martha and get bogged down with cooking and serving while missing out on developmental issues. Cooking and serving should be a choice among so many other choices. It shouldn’t be a cross.
Tebandeke wants to drag Nantaba into wife status, possibly with the hope that the wife status will evoke the biblical submission. Then Nantaba will be ordered out of politics but the good catholic that Tebandeke is should try to emulate the Lord Jesus’ example. Let women be. Let women have choices. Let them choose to be wives if they want to and to people they want to be wives to.
The Lord opened the intellectual space for women and no one has the moral authority to close it. Nantaba wants to be a politician not a wife. Reckless as her strategies may be, she wants to be a politician. She is not the only political figure defaming and creating negative publicity about an opponent. This is commonplace in Ugandan politics today.
It is not a professional and honest way of winning but it is not a problem limited to women in Ugandan politics. Defamation, blackmail, kidnaps, deceit, electoral inefficiencies have wormed their way into Ugandan politics in the name of winning. Fundamentally, the suggestion Tebandeke offers only treats a symptom and not the real disease. In this case targeting this one woman and not the entire system where the above dirty tricks are logged is simply a waste of time.
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Evelyn Lutwama-Rukundo is a senior lecturer at the Department of Gender Studies in Makerere
University.
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