Winnie Byanyima Speaks Out on Running for President

Winnie Byanyima, the wife of opposition politician Dr Kizza Besigye, has spoken out on calls by some Ugandans for her to stand for president.

One of the women who were part of bush warlord Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army (NRA) struggle, Winnie Byanyima has been part of another struggle: ridding Uganda of President Yoweri Museveni, the man that she, her husband Besigye and several bush war fighters helped bring to power.

Museveni declared a bush war after losing the December 1980 election as a candidate for the Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM). Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, mostly in the Luweero Triangle districts, the epicenter of the war.

Five years later, in 1986, he captured power, promising a fundamental change and not just a mere change of guards.

But most of those he fought with in the bush have since fallen out with him, the first prominent one being Dr Kizza Besigye, who ran against him in four unsuccessful presidential elections since 2001.

Besigye is now 68. Some people are said to have been asking Winnie Byanyima, his wife to consider a run for the presidency. Now, Byanyima, the Executive Director of UNAIDS, has spoken out on the matter.

Asked about her thoughts on running for president, Winnie Byanyima said she was pleased about the confidence people have in her. She added that she did not doubt her capacity to steer Uganda forward given her experience in politics, leadership and management.

“It’s good to hear people say that I can lead them. It’s a suggestion that they trust in me and I thank them for that,” she told NBS. “I can also say that I am capable. What haven’t I been through?”

But Winnie Byanyima says the focus should now be on bringing Uganda back to a democratic path instead of being engrossed in an upcoming election or who should be president.

“I don’t think this is the time to talk about who can be President. We should talk more about how to restore our democracy,” she said. “I am not excited about being in the next election. What is there?”

Winnie Byanyima’s husband, currently in prison, has previously said it is useless to use guns to remove Museveni. But leaked audios, that many pro-Besigye commenters have dismissed, have a man believed to be Besigye reportedly hatching a plan to remove Museveni by using bush-war like tactics. (See Details Here and There).

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