A Politician Comes to Visit

At 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning the women organized a campaign to hear an independent parliament candidate named Jokkene Timothy Okee voice his opinion on the political happenings of Uganda.

We were so lucky to be in a place where we could accommodate for his campaign, and for the women to know that their opinion matters.



Mr. Okee himself was there to speak to the ladies and even our construction workers stopped to listen. He had an introductory speaker open for him and told me in English he wanted to explain his views to me after he talked to the women in Luo. His slogan was “A New Hope” and he spoke in a very serious and calming tone as he enchanted the women with his ideals about a better tomorrow. Although I couldn’t understand his words I noticed that a few minutes into his speech his pace sped up and he began to speak with passion and fervor. The women listened in rapt attention; sometimes laughing, sometimes murmuring, often nodding their heads along. He was a funny, and a good and confident speaker but I was just happy the women had this opportunity to listen and choose.

He told me after about his connection to Partners Worldwide and his goals to make sustainable jobs for Ugandans, and help the people to vote for parties not personalities. He told me about the hardships of allowing an illiterate (statistically 31% of Ugandan adults are illiterate), poor, manipulated, and uneducated people group to vote and his goals to create literacy before anything else. His goal was to build the capacity of the people.