Two parliamentary candidates in the Bududa District Woman parliamentary race are finding a challenge of canvassing support because of their marital status. They are Agnes Nandutu, a renowned former NTV presenter and Esther Wetsetse, both independent candidates.
The two are running against Justine Khainza, the incumbent Bududa Woman MP and National Resistance Movement-NRM party candidate and Agnes Khainza Shiuma, an independent. Voters have tasked both Nandutu and Wetsetse to present their husbands as a sign of respect and responsibility before they can entrust them with their votes.
Annet Muyama, a resident of Nabweya Sub County, says marriage is a sign of respect and responsibility, saying they cannot entrust someone who isn’t married because they can easily abandon the constituency when they get married elsewhere and deny them representation.
Barbra Wambewo, a voter from Bukalasi, says they are now wise and will only vote one of their own whom they share with a common cause and is reachable at the time of need instead of voting someone who may get married far away from home and forget them.
Salimu Mukuwa, one of the local Muslim leaders also agrees. He says people in leadership should be married to avoid the temptation of snatching other people’s partners. Peter Wambuwu, a cultural leader, says traditionally unmarried people can’t be given a throne or any leadership position in the clan. He says spinsters and bachelors are not respected because they are assumed to be young.
However, 23-year-old Esther Wetsetse has asked voters not to deny her voters on grounds that she isn’t married because she has the capacity to lead them. Wetsetse says she has completed her education course at Uganda Christian University last year and will settle for immediately she is elected.
Agnes Nandutu, on the other hand, asked the people of Bududa while appearing on a local radio station in Mbale to find her a man from the district, saying she is ready for marriage to anyone who is single.
She also asked the voters to vote for effective representation as opposed to fronting issues that can never take Bududa forward. Since its inception in 2006, Bududa district has never elected a spinster or a woman who is married outside the district.
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