{UAH} WHY IS THERE NO ‘MAN MP’ YET THERE IS A ‘WOMAN MP’?

WHY IS THERE NO 'MAN MP' YET THERE IS A 'WOMAN MP'?

First, let us understand what an MP is and why they exist.

The supreme law of Uganda says that power belongs to the people and it is the people who allow being governed according to the constitution. The decisions by the people are made through their representatives. Some of these representatives are called Members of Parliament (MP). Therefore, an MP is the elected representative of the people who live in that constituency.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF AN MP?

An MP represents the views of the constituency (for instance he/she should not ask for taxi parks when the constituency says it needs hospitals). Furthermore, the MP must participate in making laws, budget distribution and approvals for the country and constituency. And he/she also acts as the monitor to highlight those who misuse funds and abuse the law in the country when they are serving it, like ministers, or public bodies.

SO WHY ARE THERE NO 'MAN' MPs TO REPRESENT MEN?

According to Uganda's supreme law (the Constitution), the state is supposed to take action to see marginalised groups are given fair, and equitable treatment in all areas of life and society. This is what is called the principle of affirmative action. This is because those people would otherwise remain disregarded or not given priority because of their age, gender, disability, or reason created by history, which exist against them.

For example, the women are given 1.5 points extra when joining university because, without it, they would have less opportunity to join the university. This is because girls are more likely to drop out of school than boys because of pregnancy, early marriage, etc. Similarly, there are fewer woman MPs in parliament, and even those that go to parliament represent interests that are general to a population (remember that Uganda's politics and social life is male-dominated) yet women have specific interests that cannot be broadly taken care of by the policies that are made.

So, the affirmative action principle also provides for an opportunity to allow more women to engage in politics where they do not necessarily have to compete with men and to also look out for the needs of the women in a constituency.

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"When a man is stung by a bee, he doesn't set off to destroy all beehives"

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