Youngest African MP Sworn In

A 20-year-old Ugandan recently became the youngest Member of Parliament in known African history. It is very exciting that someone so young, and a woman even, was elected to such a powerful position.  She didn't do it out of the blue, however, as her father had been that MP. When he died, she decided to run for his position to "continue his work," with the help and tutelage of the ruling party, the party of her "hero," Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. A publicity stunt by the ruling party to stay in power? Perhaps. Allegations of vote rigging, corruption, and violence by the opposition suggest so.

Proscovia Oromait, MP in Uganda, photo: AP

I asked a Ugandan former-student of mine for his opinion and this is what he said: 

"To be honest, I know that her ascension to power is a political maneuver by the ruling party in an attempt not to lose their majority seating in Parliament and has very little to do with a girl who doesn't even have a university education. I am as old as this girl, but even I do not think I would be ready for a seat in Parliament, and for her to think that she is, shows just how little she understands the role she is supposed to be playing as an MP. On the other hand, I would also like to see what the next four years of active politics does to her, because often it is assumed that old people are corrupt because they lost what they were fighting for a long time ago. I would like to see what will happen to a young person like herself who apparently is going into politics with the sole intention of benefiting her constituency. On the whole, however, this is nothing more than political chess by the government."

Random Kate Thoughts: It's such an exciting story, that a young woman would be elected to Parliament, that at first I was tempted to brush off the allegations of the opposition that it is a publicity stunt or pointing to her vast inexperience (essentially just finished high school)... but then I thought about ruling parties in Africa. And how much they love to stay in power. This back-and-forth of Democrats and Republicans every eight years in the US is totally foreign (pun intended) to most political situations on the continent. It is very likely that the President's party is doing its best to stay in power, through whatever means necessary. So I wish Proscovia good luck, but I also hope she doesn't turn out to be the pawn her new political "fathers" want her to be.