12 July 2009
editorial
Kampala — THE United Nations Development Programme has called for increase in the representation of women in Uganda's political parties. According to the UN, political parties are frustrating women in accessing powerful positions and resources.
The UN argues that democracy would not take root if the parties continued oppressing women.
The Government, the UN noted, had made a significant achievement in establishing democratic governance since
1986. Uganda now boasts of 32% representation of women in Parliament. The view of the UN is that this is still a small proportion of the elected leaders and more needs to be done to involve women in political leadership.
The UN has raised a pertinent issue. A study last year showed that the party in Uganda with the biggest percentage of women in its top leadership was DP. Women constituted 36% of the members of the DP national executive, according to the report published last year by the Forum for Women in Democracy.
On the other hand, women constituted 31% of the FDC executive and 23% for the ruling NRM, with many relegated to being deputies to their male counterparts. In the 2006 polls, out of the 808 contestants on the open Parliament seat nationwide, only 33 were women.
Among the candidates who campaigned on the main stream seats, NRM had 12 females out of 214 candidates, FDC had five out of 138 and DP had five out of 68, while UPC had only one female out of 78. Only the UPC has a woman as its top leader and even then she is virtually a 'hostage' of the male politicians.
Evidently, political parties in Uganda continue to be male-dominated. The direct consequence of this is that women still remain at the periphery of politics and in decision making.
It is necessary, therefore, for the political parties - the ruling NRM and the opposition parties - to stop paying lip service to gender balance. They must give women equal space in the leadership to fully participate in decision making.
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