The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
Looking into the future, what’s the potential for a further opening of space for activism? What steps need to be taken?
My plea to government and other implementers is to open up space. There were gains made in the late 1990s and early 2000 because if we felt a woman has been murdered we did not need to write to the Inspector General of Police to get permission to match to parliament or police headquarters to show our dissatisfaction. As of now we can’t do this and because we can’t express ourselves everybody thinks it is okay we will continue abusing women and no one will stand up. The world must be thinking we are crazy. They must be saying up to 23 women are murdered and these women of Uganda can’t hold placards in the public place to express themselves. Well, we can’t do it because we need permission from the IGP. Laws like the Public Order Management Act (POMA) are very distractive. Government needs to open up space for civic action.
My clerical call to the women of Uganda is that nobody is going to give us anything on a silver platter we have to struggle for it. For those of us who are benefitting it’s because somebody else struggled for us. We need to be committed to what we want to achieve. We shouldn’t allow to be silenced.
