Mukono Municipality Member of Parliament, Betty Nambooze Bakireke has rooted for the appointment of a female Inspector General of Police, arguing that women have better potential than men.
She was speaking to SoftPower News on the current state of women in the country as the world celebrates International Women’s Day.
“You can imagine, Uganda has never had a female Inspector General of Police even when men have performed badly, but no one thinks about a woman as an alternative,’ Nambooze said.
Nambooze said that Uganda turned a day which was initially aimed at assessing the progress of women, into a political event calling upon government to empower women and help them realize their potential.
“Government needs to go back to the basics starting with education. How do you expect gender equality in a country where we can’t keep girls in schools for a month like their male counterparts due to their menstrual cycles?” she asked.
“Every woman was created with potential, which only requires giving her opportunity. Many women are still marginalized on the basis of their gender,” added the legislator.
“This is why the chief guest on national women’s celebrations continues being male moreover on a gender sensitive function”.
On whether she will attend the national Women’s Day celebrations in Mityana, Nambooze said, she can not grace the event that has been turned into a National Resistance Movement (NRM) day where party issues are discussed at the expense of the core values of the day.
“You can also recall the day FDC women league members were once clobbered and eventually arrested for attending the Women’s Day celebrations. I don’t even think the organizers expect me,” she said.
Nambooze’s call for the leadership to consider a female candidate for IGP comes a day after she petitioned the Speaker of Parliament who heads the Appointments Committee to disapprove the appointment of new Deputy IGP, Brig Sabiiti Muzeei. She argued that police has competent officers who can occupy top leadership positions as opposed to appointing career military officers.