Margaret Sekaggya

Women activists in Uganda are on Monday holding a protest march against what they call excessive use of force that has resulted in death on people who were walking to work protesting the high cost of living in Uganda.

Ritah Achiro, the Executive Director of the Uganda Women’s Network the huge demonstration is organised against violence being meted out on peaceful protesters. She says they want the government to listen to its people of concerns on issues that are affecting people.

She says with inflation at 14%., many Ugandans are unable to afford the basics of living include food whose price has been on the rise.

Mariam Aktsa, one of leaders organising the women’s demonstration announced on Mothers Day on Sunday that they will carry empty pots to show things are difficult in households depicting that they are not able to put food on the table.

“We as women in civil society are hereby convening to register our deep concern and condemnation on the use of excessive force by the Police and other security agencies and subsequent escalating violence and to call upon the State to take critical measures to address the key issues/ concerns raised by the public so as to avert a national crisis,” the organisers said in a statement issued yesterday.

The Uganda Police says they have no objection to the demonstration. Police Deputy Spokesperson, Vincent Sekate said the organisers had promised they will not make political statements, and will end their march by delivering a statement to the UN Human Rights Raporteur in Uganda, Margaret Sekaggya.

The post Uganda women activists to protest high cost of living first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Domestic violence still widespread in Uganda

Uganda Women Network has expressed fears that the Local Council Courts may not be able to appropriately handle cases of domestic violence if the government does not come out to supervise such courts to ensure that they offer the necessary justice in relation to domestic violence.

The newly enacted Domestic Violence Act empowers LC courts to handle domestic violence cases though there have always been fears even before the enactment of the law over the ability of these courts to handle such cases.

UWONET in its information pack on the newly enacted law says since the bill seeks to uphold the protection of human rights that may be violated through domestic violence it is incumbent upon the government to ensure that the LC courts help in achieving this end in their decisions on domestic violence cases rather than impeding the achievement of this end.

UWONET has also appealed to the government to ensure that the bottlenecks in the formal justice system are dealt with such that it can ensure that cases of domestic violence are expeditiously handled to enable the victims of this vice easily get justice.

The Domestic Violence Act requires both the Local Council Courts and the Formal Courts to treat all cases of domestic violence with urgency and requires the courts to have heard such cases within 48 hours.

By Ultimate Media

The post UWONET doubts ability of LC courts to handle domestic violence cases first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

UWONET in a policy brief on the Domestic Violence Bill has said that sensitizing the community on domestic violence will encourage the community to participate in the fight against domestic violence.

UWONET says that when the community participates in the fight against domestic violence it will also ease the proper implementation of the Domestic Violence Bill and therefore enable the bill achieve its
intended objective.

Domestic Violence is still a critical social in Uganda since according to the Uganda Demographic Health Survey 2006 every 6 women in ten have suffered domestic Violence and 68% of married women have also experienced domestic violence.

See more stories on domestic violence in Uganda

By Ultimate Media

The post Government urged to sensitize Uganda communities on domestic violence first appeared on Uganda Multimedia News & Information.

Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe

The former Coordinator of the Uganda Women’s Network, Solome Nakaweesi Kimbugwe  has told Ultimate Media that during elections, women candidates for the various electoral posts never enjoy as much media coverage as their male counterparts. She says some media houses undertaken caricature based and discouraging coverage of women, which is many times detrimental to women’s chances of winning such elections.

She says for instance it was noted that this was the case in the 2006 general elections when the media gave more coverage to the male presidential candidates as compared to Miria Obote who was the only female candidate that participated in that presidential candidate.

Nakaweesi says that even when there is coverage it instead focuses on the weaknesses of for instance in 2006 when Obote lost her voice, the media capitalized on that which was unnecessary and worked to her disadvantage.

She says the media also focuses on minor personal and private attributes like beauty, marital status and life of the women candidates to undermine their leadership abilities which makes women fail to win elections.

Women activists recently met under a conference organized by Forum for Women in Democracy on the situation of women in political parties and demanded for more involvement of women at different decision making organs of political parties in Uganda

By  Ultimate Media

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