Ingrid ‘breast protesters’ are national heroes
By M. Suleman
30th April 2012: It was a simple demonstration by placard waving ladies. But as expected came the swift brutal response from a heavily armed police – violent arrests and detention followed! That is not a surprise these days. Not even the fact that the ladies unexpectedly stripped in protest – because the women of Amuru had done exactly that a few days earlier.
That said, the demonstration over the police’s brutal assault on Ingrid Turinawe’s breasts still remains an extra-ordinary one. For their extra-ordinary bravery, Barbara Alimadi and Happy Twinimugisha have joined the class of stone hearted women who have sacrificed themselves for the welfare of others.
It was an act of extra-ordinary courage and patriotism that these two young ladies overcame fear and organized a group of steel hearted women to go and confront a brutal and heartless police force.
They knew what it entails. They knew what had happened to Ingrid, Namboze, Doreen and countless others would happen to them. They knew that no mercy would be shown to them. Happy is pregnant, but she was ready to face excruciating torture which could lead to the death of her baby. But she took the decision to die for the cause she believed in.
There are a number of other reasons which make the act of these ladies and those who supported them extra-ordinary. To begin with, they do not belong to any political party and they do not have any political ambitions. Their actions, unlike many similar actions, were not based on scoring political points. Their primary concern was our country.
Secondly, they are not streetwise, unemployed, uneducated or economic opportunists bought by some rich fat cat. These are educated Ugandans, self employed, fairly contented! But like the majority of Ugandans, they felt they can no longer sit back and wait for others to save the country from degenerating into total chaos.
Actually Barbara is a British trained young lady who decided to leave Britain and come back to her motherland, hoping for a happy future through hard work. She could not stand by and witness more than what she has seen in the recent past in her beautiful motherland.
They knew that these despotic days of Yoweri Museveni’s rule, every Ugandan is required by law to get police permission to stage a demonstration. But to these gallant daughters of Uganda, the right to demonstrate is their birth right and they needed no permission to exercise it – just as Museveni and others asked no permission from the Obote’s government start opposing it.
They strongly detested the cruelty and brutality meted on fellow Ugandans, fellow women, fellow human beings like Ingrid, like Dr Besigye and many others, some of whom have lost their lives. They were not fighting to protect any politician or promote any political ideology – theirs was a fight to protect our most sacrosanct national values.
In short their message is that, all Ugandans, regardless of political affiliation, education, economic status, should not continue to sit back and see fellow Ugandans being tortured, being killed, being chased off their lands, being forced to sell land, and above all, seeing the country being mortgaged by gun wielding thieves.
We collectively inherited Uganda from our forefathers. It is our obligation to secure it for our children and grandchildren. We cannot surrender it to a few greedy psychopaths. We have to rise up against the evil vices today – not tomorrow! Whether we strip or throw stones, we must overcome fear.
Just like the young women and men in South Africa did during Apartheid, we have to abandon our comfort zones and join the courageous men and women to secure our country. Well done ladies! END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
