By Mike Ssegawa
Last week while appearing on NBS’s popular talkshow #TheFrontline, political commentator Charles Rwomushana labeled female MPs ‘prostitutes’.
The show that discussed women issues a day after the international women’s day, had a formidable woman whose name I need to crosscheck, but her arguments were quite solid.
However Rwomushana, always courting controversy, called out women leaders and how they have failed the cause of fellow women below the ladder.
The former intelligence operative has found himself at crossroads with MPs who also spent quality time in the August House discussing Rwomushana’s comments, instead of bringing out the issues he was addressing.
Nine women still die in labor every day in Uganda because of poorly facilitated health care services in the country. The girl child, like Dr Stella Nyanzi would say, keeps away from school because she’s in her periods simply because she cannot afford sanitary wear.
Girls are defiled in schools and homes and perpetrators get away with it. Etc. Rwomushana argued, how come women still suffer to this extent when they have numbers that can make a difference in various places including parliament, ministries, Authorities, etc. He concluded that the greatest enemy of women emancipation is women leaders who prefer to sing songs of praise than raise issues of substance, of their constituencies, where it matters.
Rwomushana is right. He has the support of the population.
Parliament is in tatters. The people there save for Abdu Katuntu’s committee which has done some barking, are offering lip service to the country.
The House which recently shouted down EALA candidate Ingrid Turinawe for allegedly calling them pigs now wants to scare Rwomushana! Fortunately, Rwomushana might never go to them to seek votes or approval, maybe he might join them as in the past to represent people of Rukungiri.
Women MPs might get angry with anyone calling them names, however, the leader in them should pay more attention to the message rather than the package the massage is delivered in.
Leaders, be them judges, in security, business, etc, have a responsibility to look out for weak of their society but it seems the current crop looks after itself alone. And voices like Rwomushana’s are not lone ones. Many people share that opinion. Thus, Rwomushana is not out of order; rather, it’s the MPs in question.
Finally, I submit that Prostitutes should complain and sue Rwomushana for comparing them to MPs. At least, many prostitutes offer their clients a service to their satisfaction. MPs, who watch, as the economy crumbles and as women die like insects, while youths graduate to no jobs, only to turn up in parliament to make noise over Ingrid and Rwomushana, are worse than pigs. And calling them prostitutes is an honour.
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