Seven women have declared their intention to unseat Kyenjojo Woman MP Lyndah Timbigamba.
Timbigamba is serving her first term but her opponents have already had enough of her. Former woman MP Joyce Kwebiiha and Miriam Kesiime, who she defeated in the 2011 elections are back in the race.
New entrants include Helen Basemera, Spellanza Baguma, Grace Kemigisa Masiko, Cleopatra Ninsiima Mukama and Sylvia Brenda Birungi, all members of the ruling NRM party.
This district is a bastion of NRM support. Since elective politics were re-introduced in 1996, more than 90 per cent in this area have voted NRM.
There are villages where NRM got 100 per cent votes in past elections. In the 2011 elections, President Museveni got 93 per cent in Kyenjojo, becoming one of the six districts where he got more than 90 per cent of the votes.
As such, politics here are a reflection of the wider NRM politics. Unless a surprise Opposition candidate pops up, the contest for Kyenjojo's woman MP seat is most likely to be decided in the primaries.
The incumbent is banking on her work in the fight against poverty in the district to retain her seat.
She has been distributing free coffee seedlings and formed several women groups; promoted girl-child education and supported the youth in their developmental activities.
"Since I was elected as Kyenjojo District woman MP, I have tried to fulfill all the government programmes and meet the people's needs, especially women and children who have more problems and tried to solve them," she says.
In her term, she supplied about 3,000kgs of improved maize seeds, distributed 25,000 eucalyptus tree seedlings and 300 hoes to her constituents.
However, Kwebiiha, a former woman MP, who is the chairperson of NRM women's league, says she wants to go back to Parliament to follow up the programmes she had started on for the good of the district.
Kwebiiha is remembered for lobbying for the upgrading of Kitongole and Kanyegaramire health centre II in Mwenge North at a time when expectant mothers were travelling more than 20 kilometres to deliver at Kyenjojo District Hospital on a poor murram road.
"Although I am old, I have a vast experience in different areas of social and economic development" she said.
There are less than 12 months for her to find out if the people remember her good deeds well enough to give her another chance. Spellanza Baguma, another hopeful who has laid a foundation in community work, also draws strength from her fight against poverty through creation of employment opportunities and supporting education.
She established Aloysius and Revocate Memorial Schools at Rugombe where she employs 20 people. She also owns a restaurant that employs 15 people in Kyenjojo Town.
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