Maureen Walube Kyalya, daughter of the late Kanobe Kyalya, a former Democratic Party stalwart has joined the Conservative Party (CP).
The 41-year-old had spent a great part of her life living and studying in the United Kingdom, very few people knew until recently when she was nominated by the Electoral Commission, joining seven others – all males – in the 2016 presidential race where she emerged with 42,833 votes.
Kyalya, while on the sidelines of an orientation workshop for Mbale district leaders said that the Conservative Party advocates align with her objectives which are to promote democracy, empower women and protect their property especially land “which they have lost because of the current government that does not priorities protection of women’s rights.”
As the observer reports, She says that all the other political contestants cannot redeem the country because they all have a background of National Resistance Movement (NRM).
These she said include FDC party leader, Dr Kizza Besigye, Amama Mbabazi who was a prime minister in the NRM Government and Benon Biraaro who served as a Major-General in the army until his retirement in September 2013.
“Am joining Conservative Party, a party that puts Uganda first before anybody else. It is the only party that says; do not sell off Uganda’s forests, do not sell of Uganda’s water bodies. It is the only party that cares about the rural poor. It is the only party that will protect people’s land. But we are not only conservatives, we are planning on how to we shall bring down the NRM government”, she said, as the Observer reports.
“My heart tells me that, there are so many people out there even better than me at leadership but the NRM government is frustrating them. Whenever NRM identifies a strong leader, they buy you off or suffocate you into submission. But, for me, I want all the strong leaders in country to come together and we develop the country together. I will reach out to all the leaders so that we bring our brains together for a better Uganda. ”
In the 2011 general elections, Kyalya took Jinja by surprise, gaining instant popularity, which made her one of the top contenders for the Woman MP seat.
Kyalya who was the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) flagbearer, lost to the incumbent NRM’s Agnes Nabirye.
She only joined the race after her mother Irene Wekiya lost the NRM primaries to Nabirye and decided to bow out of the race.
