Presidential nominee and National Unity Platform –NUP flagbearer, Robert Kyagulanyi alias Bobi Wine, has gone bare knuckle on President Yoweri Museveni’s unfulfilled sanitary pads promise.
While campaigning for his fifth elective term in 2016, Museveni promised to buy sanitary wears for all school going children but to date he has never delivered that promise. Museveni’s promise emanated from findings by Civil Society Organisations including UNICEF that one out of every 10 girls miss schools because she is menstruating.
Museveni said that problem was to be solved in this term by ensuring every school girl gets is provided with menstrual towels. But that pledge has not been delivered in the entire term prompting Bibi Wine to throw jabs at his rival who he describes as a perpetual liar.
“Just in the last election year, Gen Museveni went as far as lying to our young children. He moved all over the country promising that government would provide free sanitary pads to school-going children in order to enable the girl-child stay in school. Up to today, this promise, like very many others remains in words,” Bobi Wine said while launching his manifesto.
In 2018 journalists Museveni’s wife Janet Kataha, on how far the government had gone with purchasing pads promised to school girls and she clearly and confidently said government had no money to purchase the menstrual towels. However, the same government months earlier had spent over 30 billion shillings on bribing Members of Parliament to amend article 102(b) which barred Museveni from standing for presidency since he was over 75 years.
“They have never failed to find billions of shillings to buy off political opponents or hire mercenaries to sing praises for the regime. They have never failed to find money for luxurious travels abroad for the political class. Yes, they have never failed to find money to purchase teargas and such other oppressive equipment,” Bobi Wine said.
Museveni wouldn’t be on the ballot next year had he not bribed MPs and used state security agencies to attack parliament in order to ensure Article 102(b) was amended. It is the abrogation of that article that has seen ‘kids’ like John Katumba who graduated at Makerere this year contest for presidency.
Bobi Wine has asked Ugandans to entrust him with leadership in next year’s presidential elections if they want to witness real change. He said his government shall get all the money hidden or stolen in form of classified expenditure, and use it to improve the lives of school children, teachers, health workers and security men and women.