So, before everything else, before the protests and the politician and the woman
campaigning so hard right now to enter parliament,
I'm a feminist.
I'm a radical queer feminist. Period. OK? Unapologetic.
My name is Stella Nyanzi.
Let me give you one of these.
I'm currently contesting to become a low member of parliament.
A year ago I was a convicted prisoner. Why?
Because I wrote a poem criticising Yoweri Museveni.
Perhaps using language that was deemed a little too strong.
The justice system does not work for us.
Fuck you!
Yoweri Museveni is so invested in retaining his holding of power.
And he has promised to unleash more violence.
Contesting in their space, in their corridors, on their time, during their very own organised
elections.
And I am saying to you, dictator Museveni, you must go.
We've had enough of you.
I want the big and small posters.
Let's give them out.
We might get arrested here. Will they report us?
I am many things, I am a mother of three,
I am an ex-convict who was acquitted with the High Court of Uganda
after serving 15 months.
I'm an activist, I've done a lot of activism,
particularly against the abuse of human rights, of women's rights, of sex ... rights in Uganda.
I'm asking for your vote to become the next woman MP.
I know you. You don't need to tell me about yourself.
You are fighting a lone war here in Uganda.
They drag you around here and there. Tell them, tell them.
Now I'm asking that I take the fight to parliament.
We are seeing the climax, the build of the dictatorship.
Eeh, you've got my vote.
Thank you, my sister.
And so, reclaiming those institutions from this nepotism
and the militarisation that's everywhere,
education and health and public housing and public roads, the issues that I cry about
all the time,
we need to rebuild that.
To all of the beautiful people out there,
I'm asking for your vote.
We must show them how we are entering the new Uganda.
Don't you raise your arm like this?
The police is just that one institution of armed personnel
that has been taken over totally by the dictatorship.
And what they do is in the service of entrenching Yoweri Museveni's power.
Are we surprised, therefore, if they are shooting at Ugandans to warn that they may kill them?
We are not surprised.
If I come .. like this tear gas and pepper spray,
now I'm being arrested ...
He's a presidential candidate.
The natural response and reaction to all this brutality
would be to fear and maybe retreat.
But I think we must keep resisting along with the fear.
The fear should not paralyse us.
I'm asking for your vote. OK, bye.
My sweet dear.
I'll give you a big poster to put next to the bad man.
Next to the president.
No, no, don't cover the women.
At the risk of sounding cruel, I don't think we need more vaginas in parliament,
I've made this point many times.
It matters what sort of vagina is entering parliament.
I've always been fighting wars for women.
Yes, you have. I've been following you.
Give me five.
So, part of my critique of the women's quarter is that may of these women enter parliament,
but suddenly it's as if their vaginas close and they grow a penis.
And they forget all about women's issues, they forget about
the challenges of everyday women in the streets.
I'm asking for votes, gentlemen.
We won't hesitate to vote for you,
because you've been in prison and you speak the truth.
I didn't know women could be so determined.
That's why I love her, because people tend to hide away.
They are afraid of what might happen, she's not.
But what I don't admire is her taking off her clothes in public.
Maybe because I'm old.
I think what makes my protests memorable is that
often I have been written of and one did not expect
any form of response.
And I think the most spectacular, the naked body,
the swing of big breasts ...
Suddenly the whole world stopped, maybe to look
at my nipples, but also to ask some questions.
What are the issues behind this naked woman?
I keep asking myself the same question, why was I imprisoned?
All I did was write a poem that I think every Ugandan
with ability to write some literature should have written.
I don't believe for one moment that anything that I did
was criminal.
To tell Yoweri Museveni that he's a pair of buttocks
or to say to him that I wish his mother's vaginal canal
had squeezed him to death ... And I think that
I was arrested and charged for my audacity.
I have been asked, not once but twice since my release,
'Mama, where is the mum that went to Luzira prison?
The person that came out is a very different person.
We miss the old you.'
And I've had to explain to them what trauma does to a person and how, perhaps, the fusty
mother,
the innocent, dreamy mother that went into Luzira prison
may never come back.
This is such a crucial time. We need to be going door to door.
The Electoral Commission told us we are only allowed
to appear on TV, radio and social media.
I really love The Mighty Drive.
This truly is the dotcom era.
It's the only car I know of where you sit and chat
and people can watch you live online.
Flat shoes, high heels ... doesn't matter. Does it matter?
This is Radio 4, 103.3. It is owned by a pro-Yoweri Museveni die-hard.
I make sure I come all the time, that I can play in their air time.
Hi, Barbara.
Where is the tea today? There's no tea?
So although it's Museveni's radio station, I come and take tea because of Barbara.
I don't think she'll poison me.
The phone lines are now open.
I'm an NRM supporter and I want President Museveni to be re-elected.
But the rule refusing cameras and phones in the polling stations is not
fair at all.
How will we get evidence of them beating people and rigging the vote if we don't have phones
and cameras?
I have a big bra I can hide my phone in.
And I'll see what police officer dares to go in there.
Now this one is saying she'll bring three phones to hide in her underwear.
If you cancel the vote won't she just carry a bomb in her underwear and kill us instead?
Bye, people.
Bye, Adam. Bye.
See you the other Thursday.
I'm still working on myself, trying to find that
Stella that my children are looking for.
She may never be there.
Vote for me!
I'll vote for you. Yes, please.
And I think as long as Yoweri Museveni is still in my face,
the expectation that I will become a less agitated activist is a failed expectation.
She talks openly.
I see she has the guts to become the Kampala woman MP.
We are waiting after Bobi's election,
we shall elect her if she comes back.
I will keep advocating and criticising and speaking
back at the dictator, no matter what the cost.
And I suppose I am putting up a dare to him
that, should he run in 2026, I might run against him.
And I'll give him the toughest race he's ever met.
And if Bobi Wine has been bad news, he'd better wait for a female Bobi Wine.