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Uganda: Our Politicians - Naava Nabagesera
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New Vision (Kampala)
10 May 2008
Posted to the web 12 May 2008
Elizabeth Agiro
Kampala
IRONY is when a legal officer gets convicted. That's Naava Nabagesera's current situation. She may not have intended to get caught, but like all misdeeds, what goes around comes around. After a two-year long trial, Nabagesera was only last week convicted of obtaining sh15.2m by false pretence.
She had the option of serving a one-year jail sentence or paying a sh1.4m fine. She opted for the latter.
Nabagesera's troubles started in 2006 at the height of her political career.
She was then the presidential adviser on legal affairs. Soon after, several witnesses came forward accusing Nabagesera of having obtained money from them between 2004 and 2005. She allegedly pocketed the money after exploiting their gullibility and claiming that she could secure them jobs in Europe and Asia.
The Chief Magistrate of Buganda Road Court, Margaret Tibulya, ruled that Nabagesera would pay sh15.2m as compensation to the 12 victims who had paid her money. She is supposed to refund the money within three months.
She escaped the jail sentence when her lawyer argued that his client was a first time offender with no criminal record. He promised to appeal against the judgement because there was no evidence convicting Nabagesera.
During her term as presidential adviser, Nabagesera stood out as an articulate politician, especially on issues concerning women.
She often urged women to put their bedroom skills to use, to lure their husbands to the National Resistance Movement, a party she joined after falling out with her then husband Nasser Ntege Sebaggala, a Democratic Party member. She also preached a message of change in the fight against poverty.
Before her appointment as presidential assistant on legal affairs, Nabagesera served as Resident District Commissioner in Bugiri, Jinja and Kayunga. But wherever she went, she stirred up controversy.
In both Kayunga and Bugiri, she was often at loggerheads with the district leaders over various issues, including mismanagement of funds and abuse of office.
She was also accused of talking too arrogantly to the district officials. In her defence, Nabagesera argued that people were yet to come to terms with the fact that women could be good leaders. Nevertheless, Nabagesera is one of few women who pull off the beauty and brains combination admirably. Dealing with the situation, however, was no easy task.
When she first came into the limelight, many thought she was all beauty and no brains, but in one statement, Nabagesera fired back at her critics assuring them about the person behind the face. She said that true she may be gorgeous and considered a beauty queen by others, but that did not render her an unserious politician. Her beauty has worked against her with many labelling her an opportunist who uses her beauty to win favours.
She has also been described as a chameleone because of her changing political, social and family colours and a snake because people believe she is only beautiful on the outside but potentially poisonous on the inside. The mother of three first came to the limelight in 1996 when, standing on the multiparty ticket, she contested for the Kampala Women's seat. She lost to Margaret Zziwa.
A year later, now a staunch Democratic Party member, she got married to Sebaggala, then mayor of Kampala in a hushed ceremony. Months later, Sebaggala was arrested in the US for bank fraud and the transfer of altered documents and cheques into the US. Nabagesera later distanced herself from him. Although the two never discuss their relationship, the public has always held opinions on it.
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In 1998, Nabagesera went into hiding after failing to pay the cost for her unsuccessful election petition Zziwa. She tried her electoral luck again in the 2002 mayoral elections. However, she was advised to pull out in favour of Wasswa Ziritwawula who was the official Movement candidate.
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