Olivia Mugabe on why she wants Bukoto West Parliamentary seat
Olivia Mugabe earlier this week announced her intentions to contest for the post of Member of Parliament (MP) for Bukoto West constituency in Lwengo district.
Her announcement has come as a surprise to many because they didn’t see as a person who was about to go into politics.
Olivia doesn’t have any political background but her dream to contest started during 2016 elections.
Mugabe told this website that after casting her vote in 2016, her thought to contest came into her mind.
“After casting my vote, i was like we can do this right because like someone who has grown up in this area have known same people representing us but nothing has changed and i was like people we can change this,” Olivia Mugabe said.
The 30-year-old, born and raised in Kyazanga will be the first woman to contest for this position in Bukoto West constituency having been previously done only by men.
“I want to show that it is possible for a woman to also become an MP for a constituency not only for the district like many think,” she said.
Part of her manifesto, Olivia wants to tackle the problem of early child marriages which is very common in the constituency.
“I want to make sure i emphasis education to eliminate early child marriages caused mostly by school dropouts. This issue is affecting young generation in the constituency and once i am elected, i want to have it sorted,” she said.
Also on her manifesto, Mugabe wants to work on health care in Bukoto West. She said in the two sub countries in the constituency, there is only one ultrasound scan machine and this is not enough for pregnant mothers in the area.
“There is a need for monitoring of pregnant mothers. Mothers here carry pregnancy for nine months without checking their statuses which is not good because these days we have different diseases that can affect unborn babies. Some of these when detected early can be avoided and this can only be done when there is functioning health care system which i intend to work on,” Olivia said.
She has also highlighted girl child issue as one of her priorities. “When these girls get pregnant, they drop out of school which shouldn’t be the case. These girls should be helped and told that there is life after giving birth. You can continue and finish your studies even after giving birth. I am a living example, I gave birth before finishing my school but i went back and finished and here i am,” Olivia said.
