Makerere University researcher, Dr Stella Nyanzi is in a nasty quarrel with her sister, Sheilah Nyanzi over Stella’s social media posts which accused their late father of domestic violence.
Trouble started on Thursday January 18 when Dr. Nyanzi wrote that seeing men drumming reminds her of how her father could beat her mother wondering why married men bring pain to their wives and appear good to outsiders.
“Whenever I see men skillfully beating the engalabi (local drum) with so much vigour, I remember how my father beat my mother with such passion. I have always wondered how a violent husband who inflicts pain upon his spouse can also be very sweet to outsiders. What runs in the psyche of two-sided men?”, Dr. Nyanzi wrote.
“I often wonder what goes on in the lives of children who were raised on the violent drama of their parents. I wonder about the children who choose to conceal the violence in the homes they were raised because they feel the shame of speaking the truth. I often wonder about those who choose to honour their violent parents with shameful silence”, she added.
This prompted her sister Sheilah Nyanzi, a lawyer to break the silence, asking her to stop accusing the dead who can’t defend themselves.
“Stop using our dead parent who can’t defend themselves in their silence to spice your writings. Why didn’t you write these in their lives so that they could speak up for themselves?” Sheila wrote back.
“This is 2018 and we are ready to defend the honour of our parents against your viciousness. We will fight for their honour by speaking truth back to you. RIP Mum & Dad”, Sheilah added.
Stella then hit back at the sister that she will write her truths until she runs out of them and asked everyone to write their stories which prompted Sheilah to blast her over telling lies.
“Truth is absolute Stella Nyanzi and you know it. You have long suppressed truth with concealment of full facts. You distort narratives with half truths about other people. You need to tel the truth in its entirety, otherwise you trade in lies. You cannot pretend to speak if you are living a lie yourself”, Sheilah wrote.
The situation escalated when Dr. Nyanzi put another post claiming to have paid school for Sheilah’s A level classes after being abandoned by their late father.
Stella wrote: “Although I was earning very little from my first job, I painfully took over the responsibility of paying for my sister’s A level studies. Between my unemployed mother and myself, we raised the money to buy her requirements for boarding school”.
“It was difficult, but we raised up to the occasion. Seeing our efforts, my little sister stopped crying, resumed school, and eventually excelled at her A level national exams. She passed so highly that she was among the few Ugandan students admitted into Makerere University for the Bachelor of Laws degree on government scholarship”.
Sheilah couldn’t take it anymore. She wondered why Stella was hesitant to equally tell the public how she (Sheilah) has been paying school fees for her children since 2011.
“Stop the foolery! I have paid fees for your 3 children since 2011 to 2017. Did I have to tell the world that you were just roaming the globe whilst leaving no fees or support for them? No, it was unnecessary and we shielded the family from it,” an angry Sheilla lashed out.
“Have you paid back those debts accumulating? Not at all. But we don’t hang you dry for the
public to scorn, mock and learn from you about lack”.
Sheilah continued: “When you brag as a single mum who supports her kids, do we shoot you down that you are living off other people’s kind contributions? No, we don’t. We protect you from the shame of a mother not being able to support her children. So why the foolery? Why the ingratitude against Daddy?”
Sheilla insisted that her sister leaves the dead alone. She went on to credit their dead father for having paid for her school fees.
“My father made me & not you. Do not discount his contribution by putting yourself in the limelight of my education. Stella you are going to stop making yourself a saint by blackmailing our parents. I am ready to fight your half truths against them until I drop dead”.
Dr. Nyanzi hit the limelight in 2016 when she undressed at Makerere University in protest against alleged mistreatment by Professor Mahmood Mamdan.
She is also in court battling cases of offensive communication and cyber harassment against President Yoweri Museveni.
She is known for expressing her opinion on a range of affairs through her Facebook page whose following has risen since her political criticism of President Museveni and his government.
