I used my Uganda flag wrapper as shield, says March to Parliament protestor Nana

Despite warnings that the protests would be met with an iron fist by security agencies, Nana still joined the protest. 

“I saw [minister for constitutional affairs] Norbert Mao’s tweet suggesting that the protest was flopping. I said our children, the Gen Z, needed parents and siblings. This fired up my resolve to participate in the protest,” Nana says.

Her children pleaded with her not to go but she was determined. She tweeted pictures and messages condemning corruption, and her messages were quickly shared, as others asked for where the protest would begin. 

Nana, who donned a T-shirt with inscriptions condemning corruption and a wrapper in Uganda flag colours, was ready to hit the streets. 

She, with two other women, kicked off their protest from Cham Towers on Kampala Road, addressing people as they marched. They flashed placards calling for the release of peaceful protesters and demanded arrests of corrupt officials. 

Although some fans scattered upon seeing armed men presence, two men joined her as they headed to Parliament Avenue. 

“I have one principle, once I am engaged to get my message out, I try my best to push through. I cannot say I don’t fear. I saw the deployment and told myself, my message was going to carry on,” Nana says. 

“We marched past TotalEnergies filling station, went upwards [Parliament Avenue], and got close to Parliament. We really tried,” she says. 

Nana was almost fully stripped during the scuffle with some security agencies. 

During the arrest, both male and female security personnel were involved. She described the moment as frightening and overwhelming. Nana says they ignored her pleas to board the police van by herself. 

“Every time they advanced, I saw chances that I was going to be roughed up. So, I sat on the tarmac to show I was peaceful, but continued to belt out my message. 

“But they had surrounded me. The first person that engaged me jerked my wrapper the wrong way; I was nearly bare at the bottom. I remember someone on the street throwing a jacket at me,’’ Nana recounts. 

Some wondered why Nana dressed scantily for a protest since a wrapper can easily be stripped off. But Nana says the intent was to represent the Uganda flag colours, which spoke to the national cause. 

 “It’s also kind of my shield. You are hoping they realise it’s a fragile skirt and let you be. It was intended that I keep safe from being stripped, a rightful thinking person would let you be,” Nana says.

Roughed up at CPS

The journey to CPS was bumpy and rough for her. Upon arrival at CPS, midway up the stairs, she felt slaps and blows on her back from the security personnel, including one she recognised. 

 “They really beat me. Remember, I am already demobilised, being held, cannot resist. They beat me, and the following day I was sore allover,” she recounts. 

 “Someone said they should bring me a man. I look back and wonder if they said this to scare me. I don’t know. I remember resisting, asking why they were taking me to the men’s cell…” Nana says. 

 She says she was intimidated by security personnel and quizzed on the protests being financed by foreigners.

Later that day, Nana was taken to Buganda Road Court and remanded to Luzira Prison along with other protesters. 

Deplorable prisons 

She says her first night at Luzira was terrible. Water is rationed, and is available only for a few minutes in the morning. “I conclude that people are sent to Luzira to die but they just resist and survive. But I believe people get destroyed there instead of being corrected,” Nana says. 

“Where we sleep is body-to-body. Where you lie is hard. The piece of thing you are given as a blanket is a rug; they are smelly,” she adds. 

On different occasions, fellow inmates verbally attacked them. 

“There were a lot of insults. A lot of what they said showed they were aware of who we were and what we had done.” 

Nana urges the government to change the living conditions in prisons. 

“The PS [Permanent Secretary] Geraldine Ssali [and others] sleep somewhere supposed to be a sick bay. The clinic has no medicines, the doctor is neither there, or there is a long queue.  

“So, the place to rest when you are sick is occupied by the big people, the big fish,” Nana says. 

Prisons react

But Mr Frank Baine, the prisons spokesperson, said one could judge the situation depending on where they have been. 

“If she has been staying in Kololo, staying in prison cannot be anywhere presentable to what she wants. But to me, the conditions we are living in are bare minimum. Congestion, yes, we are congested; nobody doubts it, but what can we do about the congestion,” Mr Baine says. 

Nana spent a week in prison and is to return to court soon.

Passion

“I have one principle, once I am engaged to get my message out, I try my best to push through. I cannot say I don’t fear. I saw the deployment and told myself, my message was going to carry on. We marched past TotalEnergies filling station, went upwards [Parliament Avenue], and got close to Parliament. We really tried,” Ms Nana Mwafrika, a human rights defender

Key demands

Top on the list of the youths demand during the protests was the call for Speaker of Parliament Anita Among to resign alongside four parliamentary backbench Commissioners and any legislators implicated in corruption scandals.

They also wanted the size of Parliament whittled down from the current 529 elected members to a reasonably low number.