By our reporter
On Thursday a battle line was drawn between controversial academia Dr. Stella Nyanzi and her young sister a one Sheilah Nyanzi.
It all started when Stella went on her Facebook wall and started unveiling some dirty family secrets about their deceased father accusing him of beating their mother as well as failing to take good care of his family.
The Makerere University research fellow wrote;
“Some people have asked me to contest for the position of Member of Parliament (MP). Some have even asked me to run against the current Woman MP for Kampala in the coming 2021 or 2023 elections. In addition to knowing that my rightful place is in the knowledge production industry, I am very hesitant to contest for MP because of the traumatic experiences my family underwent when my father contested for a similar position. Politics can make one mad!
Because he was spending a lot of money on his MP election campaigns, my father refused to pay school fees for my mother’s last borne child. Because he was paying for food and drink to be consumed during his political rallies aimed at soliciting for votes from villagers, my father came home and proudly declared that he was not going to spend any more money on my sister’s education. There was a bitter exchange in our home as my mother challenged and questioned the merits of his decision. He overturned a glass jar of juice as he tried to throw it at her.
My sister who had highly passed her S4 national exams wept bitterly.
I was enraged. I screamed at our father. I asked him why he was rejecting to pay the fees for my sister who had been admitted back to Gayaza High School on merit, yet many parents were striving hard to pay for their children to get onto the waiting list for admission into that winning school. I cursed his election campaigns. I cursed his aspirations for MP. I predicted to him that he was going to fail at this contest. He threw a glass at me. I dodged it. He left. Later that day, over the news on radio, we heard that Daddy bought goats and a cow which were slaughtered for his supporters to celebrate.
Although I was earning very little from my first job, I painfully took over the responsibility of paying for my sister’s A’level studies. Between my unemployed mother and myself, we raised the money to buy her requirements for boarding school. It was difficult, but we raised up to the occasion. Seeing our efforts, my little sister stopped crying, resumed school, and eventually excelled at her A’level national exams. She passed so highly that she was among the few Ugandan students admitted into Makerere University for the Bachelor of Laws degree on government scholarship.
You see the reasons for my refusal to respond to calls for me to run for MP? Political ambition temporarily went to my father’s head, causing him to neglect the responsibility of educating my sister. The desire to run for political office can bring out the evil in a good human being. If my father could abandon paying the school fees of a brilliant child because he was pouring his money into pleasing the voters, how much more gullible would I become if such ambitions went to my head? And although he sunk all his money into these campaigns, my father failed to get enough votes in the elections!”
However, Sheilah, who is now a lawyer did not take her elder’s accusations lightly thus bitterly lashing out at her.
Sheilah responded;
“Stop the foolery! I have paid fees for your 3 children since 2011 to 2017. Did I have to tell the world that you were just roaming the globe whilst leaving no fees or support for them? No, it was unnecessary and we shielded the family from it. Have you paid back those debts accumulating: Not at all. But we don’t hang you dry for the
Public to scorn, mock and “learn from you about lack”.
When you brag as a single mum who supports her kids, do we shoot you down that you are living off other people’s kind contributions? No, we don’t. We protect you from the shame of a mother not being able to support her children. So why the foolery? Why the ingratitude against Daddy?
Leave the dead alone. My father paid my fees all my primary and secondary life and now you are screaming because you paid for 1 term? Really? Shouldn’t be resurrect and tell the world the truth? My father made me & not you. Do not discount his contribution by putting yourself in the limelight of my education. Stella you are going to stop making yourself a saint by blackmailing our parents. I am ready to fight your half truths against them until I drop dead.”
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