By Mulengera Reporters
During the Tuesday 30th July media break meeting at Imperial Royale Hotel, journalists casually interrogated Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) Executive Director Sam Mwandha as to why women aren’t easily visible in the top management positions at his agency.
Raised by a UBC journalist (as the rest nodded in approval), the question was prompted by the fact that the high table had not less than 4 top management officials none of whom was female. The scribes were told these were the members of top management at UWA and were all here to make submissions aimed at deepening the 4th estate’s understanding of the goings-on at the agency.
For the record, some of the big men present were ED Sam Mwandha, Communications Manager Bashir Hangi, Tourism/Business Development Director Stephen Masaba, Deputy Director Field Operations Charles Tumwesigye, Deputy Director Legal & Corporate Affairs Chemonges Sabilla Mongea and PRO Gessa Simplicious who co-moderated the session. The only ladies present were in subordinate roles such as registering/ushering in guests, taking photos using the I-pad and moving around the microphone.
This state of affairs is something over which a feminist like Makerere’s Gender Law specialist Prof Sylvia Tamale would even have stormed out of the meeting in protest. Intrigued like anyone else was, a scribe from UBC used the plenary session to casually inquire why the UWA top management was devoid of ladies.
Some in the audience joked that perhaps the UBC gentleman came expecting to quench his thirst by glancing at nice-looking ladies from UWA but was disappointed there was none among the session’s key note speakers. In supporting their colleagues’ question, the scribes mutedly wondered how (in this era of inclusiveness as enforced by the Equal Opportunities Commission) UWA was continuing to get its budget appropriated by Parliament without anyone raising a finger to accuse them of non-compliance with the EOC Act and Article 21 of the Constitution.
With remorsefulness seemingly written on his face, UWA ED Mwandha cautiously responded lest he makes things even more complicated by angering the female scribes and editors that were many in the audience. Emphasizing he was being as candid as he could, Mwandha admitted it was regrettable out of the 10 people in top management, only one is a lady. But overall, he explained, UWA has over 200 staffers at the headquarters in Kamwokya majority of whom are females.
He added the HR department, which is at the forefront of recruitment decisions, is (ironically) dominated by ladies-10 of them in number. He added reservations, which is one of the very important departments in the UWA business, is numerically dominated by women and men are only 1%.
The organization overall has over 2,000 employees, majority of whom (he disclosed) are ladies. The only challenge he admitted has to do with growing women visibility in top management positions. Contrasting between reservations and the national parks departments, Mwandha said some departments naturally attract more women than men and vice versa.
The national parks department is naturally dominated by males (women are only 30%) just like women dominate departments like reservations and HR. “Nothing has been deliberate on our part except that some jobs attract more ladies or gents than others but the observations you have made on this issue is something we admit has to be addressed so that we do better than we are currently,” said Mwandha whose honesty and humility on the issue persuaded scribes in the audience to understand his predicament better than they would if he had tried to be defensive or dismissive about the whole issue. (For comments, call, text or whatsapp us on 0703164755 or email us at mulngera2040@gmail.com).
