Parliamentarians" thing we have in this part of Africa; or the One Day
Governor arrangement which has become relatively popular in Lagos
State. NO. This is real African politics!
Proscovia Oromait, a female teenager, has contested an election and
won a seat in Uganda's parliament, adding to the ruling party's
majority. Oromait, who is 19 and a college hopeful, contested
elections in eastern Uganda to fill the seat left vacant by her
father's death.
While President Yoweri Museveni's ruling party had been desperate for
a win there – having lost seven in eight parliamentary by-elections
this year – the polls have come to be widely seen as a test of
Museveni's popularity, and some party bosses calculated that she would
win with a sympathy vote.
According to Michael Mukula, a lawmaker who is one of the ruling
party's deputy chairmen, "I am a bit concerned and taken aback because
of her lack of experience and lack of exposure… This is not a
constituency you want to give a child of that age to shoulder."
As a lawmaker, Oromait will be representing a place called Usuk, where
dirt roads become flooded in the rainy season and where there is only
one functional high school. This rural constituency of some 100,000
people is said to be thoroughly impoverished, even by Uganda's
standards.