While it makes headlines when a minister and another minister or women in powerful positions fallout in the open, it undermines efforts to increase the pool of role models. After close to four decades of campaigns for women empowerment and equality, women hold 45 percent of the ministerial positions, which is 37 out of a total of 82 positions including that of the Prime Minister, they occupy 33 percent of the parliamentary seats and 46 percent of the local government electoral positions.
Activists were happy that for just ministerial positions, 14 of the 32 the cabinet ministers are women, which is 44 percent up from 36 percent of 2021.
But the celebrations could have been short-lived because media reports of internal conflicts between various ministers emerged, more so over the handling of COVID-19 issues and implementation of government projects.
Probably the public was less interested in conflicts between public figures because they were dealing with the negative impact of COVID-19 and learning how to recover from the second wave of the pandemic that saw many people infected and hundreds die mid last year.
However, with low cases of COVID-19 recorded at the start of the year and full reopening of the Ugandan economy and schools after two years, things seem to have returned to the pre-pandemic period, especially for politicians.
An example is the rift between Minister of State for Lands Persis Namuganza and Tororo Woman MP, Sarah Opendi. This was among the highlights of the parliamentary probe into land allocation in the Naguru-Nakawa satellite city development project. The project was initially expected to be implemented by Opec Prime Properties Ltd from 2007. However, the deal was aborted and the land, about 140 acres was repossed by Uganda Land Commission.
The probe was led by Kazo MP Dan Kimosho and Opendi was one of the members.
When Namuganza appeared before the probe team in April this year, she accused Opendi of being jealous of her, having been dropped as a minister of state in recent years. But Opendi rebuked her, saying she was interested in getting answers including whether or not Namuganza had a copy of the presidential directive on allocation of 15 acres to a M/S Internal Medicine Virginia Ltd in the Naguru-Nakawa area.
The probe team later on recommended that Namuganza should step aside as a minister to pave way for investigations since it was discovered that M/S Internal Medicine Virginia Ltd does not exist, in Ugandan speak, it is a ghost company and also because legislators were never availed documents indicating that President Yoweri Museveni had directed the lands ministry to ensure that the same company was given 15 out of the 53 acres in Naguru-Nakawa project site. The probe team recommended that Namuganza should be “held accountable for misleading the Uganda Land Commission into allocation of land to individuals and entities following presidential directives which were non-existent.”
In May, Parliament adopted the report of the probe team, with the Speaker Anita Among directing the government to present a Treasury memorandum on what has been done in two months.
To date, Namuganza has rejected Parliament’s decision.
Meanwhile, five years ago, the Parliamentary committee on Rules, Discipline and Privileges noted that Namuganza had belittled the then Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga.
However, minister Namuganza’s first open fight with another “powerful” woman was Kayunga Woman MP Idah Nantaba and her predecessor in the lands ministry. The two women were not secretive about their dislike for each other, considering that they used various media platforms including newspapers, radios and television stations to demonize the other.
The Observer Team on December 12, 2016 wrote about Namuganza-Nantaba’s “ugly quarrel” in the story titled “Ministers in ugly quarrel”. The publication gave space to both females to accuse and counter accuse each other, creating the image of two women who cannot stand each other.
Are such fights an indication of the need for more dialogue and orientation for women leaders on why they must have good manners and also be exemplary to the younger generation that will be our leaders in the future?
Or is the media biased by focusing on these fights to present powerful women as quarrelsome, petty or divisive? If this is not the purpose, why then are they judged or complain of mistreatment whenever they are before probe teams?
What about when men disagree?
How Men Fight
While media reports show that women usually have bitter exchange of words in private and in the media, men on the other hand take it a notch higher- they actually fight. However, the media does not vilify such men as they do to women.
For instance, on January 30, 2020, media outlets reported about a fist fight between Kilak North County MP Anthony Akol and Aruu County MP Samuel Odonga Otto.
Capital Times’ Ronaldo Kalangi wrote “MP Odonga Otto thumped at Parliament, Rushed to Hospital on Oxygen.” Kalangi explained that Otto was rushed to Nakasero hospital after the two “lawmakers reportedly flexed muscles in the lobby of the august house on Thursday afternoon”
Also, “According to reports from Parliament, Akol accuses Otto of telling his voters in Amuru district not to vote for him,” part of the story reads.
The story does not condemn either men. It rather describes what happened, without passing judgment on who started the fight or why they did not resolve the matter peacefully.
On February 1, 2020, The Independent Publications published a story originally written by Uganda Radio Network titled “Deputy Speaker asks MPs Otto, Akol to formally resolve grievances”. According to the story, “Odonga Otto was rushed to Nakasero hospital on Thursday after allegedly being punched by the Kilak North Member of Parliament.”
It adds that although Otto is out of danger, the two legislators have taken to social media and main media yet again with verbal attacks and that the Deputy Speaker Oulanyah has intervened in mediating the two to reconcile their differences.
Some media outlets such as Watchdog Uganda presented Odonga as a crybaby on February 5, 2020 with the headline “Teary Odonga Otto pleads to parliament to punish fellow legislator Akol for punching him.” The story shows that Otto made his plea while at the floor of the House, saying “I have suffered ridicule as you can see from the laughter from MPs and pain. I seek your indulgence that this matter is taken to the Committee of Rules and Discipline. My people are very angry and we don’t want to take this matter in our hands.”
The online site says this “request left the entire House in waves of laughter which again increased Otto’s anger.”
Another altercation between legislators was reported in 2017.
On September 19, 2017, Uganda Radio Network-URN’s Alex Otto wrote “MPs in Fist Fight”. Otto wrote “There was a fist fight at parliament this afternoon between Ibrahim Abiriga, the Arua Municipality Member of Parliament and his Ayivu counterpart, Bernard Atiku.”
He adds that “Eye witnesses say Atiku charged at Abiriga and punched him forcing him to fight back. It took the intervention of parliamentary police to separate the two legislators. According to information obtained by URN, the two legislators have been bickering for some time.”
The impression is that Atiku and Abiriga had been at loggerheads for some time.
Outside parliament, Ofwono Opondo, the Executive Director of Uganda Media Centre had a bitter exchange with KampalaCity Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago on NBS TV’S Frontine. Lukwago accuses Opondo of attacking and threatening to evict from the studios during the talkshow and off-air on July 28,2022.
On August 4, 2022, Lukwago sued Opondo in the High Court, saying the latter also punched and kicked him in the chest and stomach. Lukwago is demanding compensation of shillings 500 million for what he termed inhuman and cruel treatment.
Journalist and media trainer John Baptist Imokola on August 8, 2022 opined that “NBSTV’s Lukwago vs Opondo altercation: Why Media houses should enbrace the safeguarding culture” on the website of the African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME).
Imokola noted that the altercation is a wake up call for media houses to safeguard guests and people from “harm, abuse or neglect from risks created by the organisation’s activities”. He argues that the incident would not have happened if the station had not invited Lukwago and Opondo as panelists.
He recalled a scenario where he hosted a guest who appeared on a morning show with a pitsol while he was WBS TV. “When I watched the live altercation between the Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago and the Director of the Uganda Media Centre, Ofwono Opondo, while appearing on NBS TV’s The Frontline, on 28 July 2022, my WBS TV memories came back fresh. And beyond these memories, what happened on NBS TV highlights the issue of safeguarding – a new concept that I learnt recently,” Imokola writes.
Is Imokola’s proposal feasible outside the studios? Can media houses safeguard powerful men and women and even ordinary people from harm, ridicule and other negative risks that result from activities of the media?
The answer is yes. The media has the power to safeguard and also be gatekeepers who promote equality, not discrimination, isolation, vilification of people who disagree with each other among others.
