By Guest Writer/Isingiro
Loice Natukunda Otafiire, popularly known as Mrs Otafiire, is the wife of seasoned politician and Major General Kahinda Otafiire. But beyond that well-known family connection, she has developed a public voice around issues of faith, women’s empowerment and economic self-reliance.
One thing that stands out whenever Loice speaks publicly is her reference to God. Her Christian faith is not something she leaves outside her public work; it is woven into the way she speaks about family, women, leadership and society.
At a recent Women’s Day celebration in Isingiro, for example, she reflected on Uganda’s national motto, “For God and My Country,” connecting the word God with the idea of love. Her argument was simple but significant: Ugandans may disagree with one another and correct one another, but they can do so while retaining love, dignity and humanity.
Alongside her faith is an academic and professional background. Loice holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, obtained from a university in India, and serves as Executive Director of Elevate Her Uganda, through which women’s empowerment has become a central part of her public work.
Her concern is particularly focused on the economic vulnerability of women.
In many rural communities, women perform much of the work that keeps households going. They cultivate land, care for children, manage homes and contribute to family income. Yet many still have limited control over land and other productive resources.
For Loice, this presents a challenge that cannot be addressed simply by telling women to work harder. Women need opportunities, skills and access to resources that enable them to benefit from the work they already do.
Her approach to empowerment therefore places considerable emphasis on helping women become economically productive and more self-reliant.
But that message comes with another point she has repeatedly made about the relationship between women and men: empowering women is not the same as fighting men.
Her position is that families need both men and women, and that the progress of one should not require the weakening of the other.
She often brings the discussion back to the role of mothers.
A mother is not simply raising a child; she is helping shape the person that child will become. When women are given better opportunities, useful skills and the ability to contribute more effectively to their households, the benefits can extend beyond the individual woman to her children, family and wider community.
This is why her message about women’s empowerment is also a message about the next generation.
If we want better men and women tomorrow, we must also pay attention to the mothers raising them today.
For Loice, development is not only measured in national statistics or large projects. It is also experienced at household level in homes where children need food and education, where mothers need opportunities, and where families need reliable incomes to sustain themselves.
Her public work therefore brings together faith, family, women’s economic empowerment and the wider question of how communities can build more productive and self-reliant households. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
