Kampala, Uganda | URN | Kampala City Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago has appointed Makerere University Kampala Woman councillor Doreen Nyanjura as his deputy.
Lukwago made the announcement on Thursday 18th, June 2020 morning at the Lord Mayor’s Parlour at City Hall, following the resignation of Sarah Kanyike, who said she is retiring from active politics. Kanyike, the Makindye East Woman councillor has served as Deputy lord Mayor since 2016.
Kanyike was last week nominated by President Yoweri Museveni to take up the position of Director Gender, Community Service and Production at Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA). Lukwago says he accepted her resignation in good faith although he had previously pleaded with her to reject the nomination.
Ms Kanyike on however has said that she is still the official Deputy Lord Mayor of KCCA. “As far as I am concerned, I am still the deputy Lord Mayor of Kampala and councillor for Makindye East. I am also reading from social media that I was appointed somewhere. There is no official communication,” Ms Kanyike said.
This year, after the introduction of The KCCA executive arm in the KCCA 2020 Amendment Act, Kanyike was appointed as the executive secretary in charge of gender and also the Leader of Government Business at KCCA.
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Lukwago has also appointed Moses Kataabu, the councillor Kampala Central Division to replace Doreen Nyanjura’s duties as the executive secretary in charge of finance. Both Nyanjura and Kataabu will be presented before the KCCA Council for approval. Council is expected to convene on Monday, June 22.
The rise of Doreen Nyanjura
Doreen Nyanjura first became popular as a fanatic of former Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) President Dr Kizza Besigye. In one interview, she said she started following and picking interest in Dr Besigye during the 2001 Presidential elections.
While many people were heaping praises on Museveni in her village, Nyanjura wondered why Dr Besigye, Museveni’s contender in the 2001 race was being loathed and called a rebel.
“Everybody was talking about Museveni and they rarely talked about Dr Besigye. This was an unjust act because he had been isolated. I started picking interest in him and innocently told my father to vote for him. It was wrong for people to crucify him before reading his manifesto,” she said in 2018.
She started to follow Dr Besigye religiously, tuning in to radios that hosted him, and jotting down the things he said. She would also go to her school library and cut out photos of Dr Besigye from newspapers.
At Masheruka Girls School in Bushenyi, one of the schools she attended, Nyanjura was often asked by teachers to cut down on her ‘obsession’ with Besigye. She did not want to listen. She didn’t. Her love for Dr Besigye only grew. And she believed his every word.
“I had done a lot of reading about Besigye and the ideals he stood for. His love for a better Uganda inspired me so much and in him, I saw a new Uganda with systems that equally benefits every Ugandan.”
While Dr Besigye stage protests in his fight against President Museveni’s government, Nyanjura replicated the energy and protested against ‘bad leadership’ in school. She became popular, and popular she had been since then wherever she goes.
In school she was the chairperson of the School Council, a position she said she won because of her “defiance against bad leadership.”
After joining Makerere University in 2009, she was always involved in FDC protests and programs, establishing structures and getting support at the University. She was as a result appointed Vice Guild President. Her activism attracted her to FDC national leaders who later connected her to Besigye. Since then, she has always been by and on his side.
Nyanjura’s political activism led her to City Hall in 2016 as female councillor representing Makerere University after a landslide win.
Earlier this year, she contested for the seat of KCCA Speakership but she lost to Rubaga North councillor Kawalya Abubaker.
Following her loss, Lukwago appointed Nyanjura Executive Committee’s Minister of Finance and Administration, the appointment was seen as a consolation for her loss.
Lukwago and Nyanjura both align with Dr Besigye and are active members of Besigye’s People’s Government.
NOTE: Additional text adapted from The Tower Post.