By Diana Kibuuka
As Uganda gears up for the 2026 elections, women’s movements have expressed concern over the absence of female presidential candidates. The Uganda Media Women Association (UMWA) organized a meeting at Hotel Africana, bringing together stakeholders from the media, government, and various human rights organizations to address key questions: Where are the women’s voices? Do women have specific demands? What about persons with disabilities? Will the media make a commitment?
The media has at times been criticized as an obstacle to women’s political careers in Uganda—why is this the case? In a brief report, UMWA outlined 20 reasons why women in politics tend to avoid or even distrust the media.
- It destroyed my marriage.
- It made me lose a job.
- It de-campaigned me.
- Media people demand money for coverage.
- If you refuse to give them money they de-campaign you.
- Media people follow us to our families at the expense of looking for a story.
- Media people emphasize the negative about us.
- Media people don’t cover our functions, they prefer men.
- Media people are impatient with us – They don’t give us enough time to prepare.
- They emphasize our physicality – biological setup, thighs, hips, etc.
- Media People are very insensitive; they don’t care about the impact of the stories they publish.
- Media people assume women in politics have a lower IQ than men.
- They assume we do not have adequate knowledge about policy issues.
- They usually make generalization about us.
- They are green about gender roles that keep us busy to the extent of not being ready to participate in media engagements.
- They are more interested in exposing rather than constructing.
- We are misquoted.
- Most of the media people are rude.
- They publish misconceptions, myths, lies about us.
- They are money hungry.
