Zawedde Lukwago: The woman standing behind the Lord Mayor The Lukwago family at their The Lukwago family at their home in Wakaliga. It was very hard to miss the sight of an elegantly dressed woman in a black Hijab standing besides Erias Lukwago, now the embattled Lord Mayor as he was being sworn in, back in May 20, 2011. She stood tall, was slender and light skinned. From time to time, she would smile and wave to the cheering crowd who were showing their solidarity and support for her husband, the elected Mayor of Kampala town. Her name is Zawedde Lubwama Lukwago. She is the better-half of the embattled Lord Mayor. Ever since that time when her husband was sworn into office, Zawedde has hardly been seen in public again. She is barely in the spotlight unlike her husband, who constantly makes headlines in the various print and electronic media. The outstanding stories that were mostly covered about her husband included his incompatible working relationship with the Executive Director of Kampala city, Jennifer Musisi and in the recent days, the news has been about his impeachment and then High Court’s declaration that he remains the Lord Mayor of Kampala. Court granted Lukwago an interim injunction against his removal from office until his case against a tribunal which found him liable for incompetence and abuse is heard by court. Despite the fact that Zawedde is rarely in the public, one would wonder what sort of state of mind she was in especially earlier last week after her husband’s impeachment. Prepared for it all Zawedde says she began hearing stories that there was a likelihood of kicking her husband out of office about three weeks ago. So, when the news broke out last Monday that her husband had been impeached from office following a meeting chaired by Minster of Presidency, Frank Tumwebaze at City Hall, she was not really shocked. “I was not really hit hard by the news because I had prepared myself for any eventual come out. However, I had kept counselling myself and having hope that the impeachment would not happen,” she explains to me in a strong confident tone. Zawedde talks to me outside their nicely mowed compound at their place of residence in Wakaliga, a Kampala suburb. She is dressed in a long blue dress with a pair of cream high heels. Her braided long hair is left dangling on her shoulders. From time to time, visitors who are seated in another part of the compound keep coming to where she is to say hello and show their solidarity. She got to know about the impeachment while watching the proceedings on television with her children who she says were traumatised by the whole incident. On this particular day, she did not let them go to school because she did not want other children telling them hurtful things about their father. Lukwago’s various attempts to demonstrate on the street have constantly got him clashing with the police. This in the long run has seen him manhandled, dragged into police vans and taken to prison cells. There is a particular picture of him circulating in various media houses of him sweating while putting on a dishevelled attire (the shirt was unbuttoned with a loose button). On how Zawedde felt after seeing this particular picture, she says she was only embarrassed but never broke down. “I did not cry when I saw that picture because I have seen a lot of other worse ones where my husband has been humiliated,” she says. The only times she cried was when her husband was still a Member of Parliament. “I would constantly be aggrieved whenever I saw pictures of him on either television or newspapers being brutally mishandled. It was very painful to watch,” she says. She says the crying stopped when her husband eventually became Lord Mayor because she had become used to such situations, and watches everything from the side-lines. Last week she watched the impeachment proceedings at home while her husband was admitted and treated at Mukwaya General Hospital in Nsambya. “The ongoing situation had really stressed him. That is why he got high blood pressure and his sugar levels rose as well,” she explains. She could not be with him at the hospital because she was nursing their newly born baby. The children’s questions The Lukwagos have five children, a boy aged 11; a girl who is nine; twins (a boy and girl) aged six; and a baby boy who is just three weeks old. It is because of these twins that Lukwago carries Ssalongo as his pet name while his wife is known as Nnalongo. On many occasions, Zawedde says she has tried to shield the children by keeping some of the newspapers away and deliberately not sharing some of the information regarding their father with them. One of the strongest measures she has put in place to protect her children from knowing what is happening to their father is banning them from watching TV at certain times: “I never allow them to watch news in my presence because a lot of hurtful things are said about him during such times and the television pictures are sometimes disturbing to watch.” Unfortunately for her, they always get to find out somehow. “They would always get to know what was happening to their father from their friends at school,” she explains. She even recalls a time, one of the children came running towards her saying “I wish I could go and speak to the President and tell him that our father is not a thief and that he should leave him alone.” Then, during the day of the impeachment, they kept asking why the 29 councillors had voted against their father and why they were celebrating after casting their votes. Was it because they did not like their father? “They had many other questions and some of them were very hard for me to answer,” Zawedde says. She only answered those questions that she could. The rest of the time, she kept telling them that everything was going to be okay; therefore they did not need to worry themselves. Regarding the issue of whether being a Lord Mayor’s wife changed her, she firmly says, “absolutely not.” “I am still the same kind of woman that I was when I met my husband. I am still very private and do not like the spotlight that much because of the negative stories they write about my husband,” she says. “I always imagine that they would do the same to me if I was in the spotlight. So, for the sake of my peace of mind, I prefer to be behind scenes taking care of him and the children,” she adds. So does being behind the scenes mean that she gets to intervene in his work? Zawedde says this is not the case: “I never tell him what to do when it comes to his office business. However, whenever he comes and tells me about a particular problem that he is experiencing, I advise him accordingly.” When I teasingly ask her if she has ever met Jennifer Musisi in person or even had any sort of contact with her, she laughs out loud and asks: “For what?” Standing firm by her husband Before her husband was elected Lord Mayor, he was representing Central Kampala Constituency on the Democratic Party (DP) ticket, a position he was elected to in 2005. The mother of five says even when she was just as an MP’s wife then, she stilled loved her privacy and never wanted to be in the media for different reasons. When her husband told her that he was interested in standing for the MP position then, she says she embraced the idea and told him to actually go ahead. “Lukwago has always been passionate about politics. So, when he told me that he wanted to stand as MP, I was okay with the idea because I knew that it was a good opportunity for him,” she explains. “Even before we met in the 1990s, I had read stories in various local newspapers about his deep involvement in DP. There, when we eventually started courting, I knew the kind of man I was getting married to,” she adds. She echoes that she was fine with the idea of marrying a man who was involved in politics and she also supported the idea of her husband standing as Kampala’s Lord Mayor. But that particular job came with its troubles right at the start. “The councillors who were sworn in with him tried to fight him. But I always encouraged him to be strong and courageous,” she says. When asked if the impeachment took a toll on their marriage, she says, absolutely not. “My husband remained the same loving husband and father although he fell sick,” she says. Despite all these setbacks, Zawedde says that she was always positive that the trials and tribulations that they were going through would get better – like when High Court Judge Yassin Nyanza ruled last Thursday in her husband’s favour that he should still serve as Lord Mayor. For her, it was one of the signs that it was not the end of the road for them. “I was so overwhelmed with happiness and excitement when I heard that High Court said my husband is still the Lord Mayor. It showed that there are people who still believe in the justice system in this country,” she explains. She could not join him as he was being sandwiched by a massive excited crowd because of the court ruling, as she was at home nursing the baby. Her outstanding wish at the moment is for her husband to be accorded the respect that he deserves. Lukwago’s fate at City Hall may be uncertain but one thing isn’t — Zawedde’s unwavering backing. Who is Zawedde Lubwama Lukwago? How old are you? I am 34 years old. What is your profession? I am a professional lawyer just like my husband. I work with Zawedde Lubwama and Co Advocates. Under which circumstances did you meet your husband? I was conducting research when a friend of mine told me to go and see him in case I needed him. He was working as a lawyer with Abaine Spencer Lukwago Alaka Advocates at the time while I was a second year law student at Makerere University. We started dating later in 2001 and finally married in 2003. Who has been your outstanding support system during your husband’s impeachment? Most of the people who stood by me are my husband’s political friends, my own personal friends as well as our family members. I was also strengthened spiritually because of the prayers that I would have with my family. What lessons did you draw from husband’s impeachment? Most were political ones. I leant that there is no democracy in this country. If it is there, then, it is bleeding democracy. I have also come to learn that justice does not exist in the world. It is something that people talk about but it really does not exist. I also got to learn who his friends really are. There those who walked away and there are those that stayed by his side. What new thing did you learn about your husband after he was impeached? That he is a very determined man whose yes means yes and whose no means no. Many times they have tried to buy him off. However, he stood by his values as well as principles and did not allow to be compromised.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Dec 2013 20:48:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015