Stella Nyanzi saddened by the poverty levels in Kampala

Kampala, Uganda |  THE INDEPENDENT |  Dr Stella Nyanzi, the former Makerere University academic researcher and Forum for Democratic Change-FDC Kampala Woman parliamentary candidate, says it is disheartening to see how Ugandans have been reduced to beggars.       

Speaking to Uganda Radio Network on the sidelines of her campaigns in Nakawa Division in Kampala on Tuesday, Nyanzi said that everywhere she has gone before listening to what she is going to do for them, people first ask for handouts like; T-shirts, money, masks or local gin.          

Indeed, when our reporter moved with Nyanzi on her door to door campaigns, a number of people especially in Nakawa market, were heard asking for handouts. “Dr Stella Nyanzi we are going to vote for you but we are thirst come and buy for us some water,” said one woman who only identified herself as Hanifa.     

When asked why she was asking for handouts from a candidate, she said everyone they vote for never comes back, saying this is the only time that they can also squeeze something from them. In the interview, Nyanzi said this has been very frustrating for her especially considering that campaigns are mainly door to door. 

Nyanzi also talked about her fundraising efforts in order to fund her campaigns. Two months ago, she put out a call for funding on her Facebook timeline asking well-wishers to help her raise UGX 1.3billion.     

She said this post surprised many people because of the sheer amount she needed. However, she said by the look of things, this was a conservative figure because new estimates show that she will need more money to pay her campaign agents across the almost ninety parishes in Kampala. She disclosed that so far she has raised around UGX 30million through fundraising.   

Nyanzi also shocked many when she put out a Facebook post calling for funding from pro-gay personalities in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. 

In the interview, however, she said her post was not aimed at Sir Elton John an open gay Pop Musician and Ellen DeGeneres, a TV presenter and an actor in the US, but her opponents in the race who had made it a habit to attack her because of her academic work with gay communities.       

She added that actually in the end the two gay personalities she was writing to never gave her the money, but the post helped her to stave off her critics who were depicting her not only as a promoter of homosexuality but a lesbian herself.     

Nyanzi is competing with eight other contestants including the National Unity Platform’s Shamim Malende, Democratic Party’s Sumayyah Muwonge and National Resistance Movement’s, Faridah Nambi among others.

********

URN