Nyanjura: Why FDC shouldn’t forget Ingrid Turinawe’s sacrifices in the struggle

Doreen Nyanjura | The Pearl Times Viewsroom

As the first chairperson of the women’s League, she literally built that structure from scratch. This at a time when political parties had no women’s Leagues.

All they had were women secretaries on their party structures.

Today every party has a women’s League thanks to Ingrid’s trail blazing efforts.

Selfless service was her code. Uncommon valor is her trademark. She leads from the front taking on tasks that most will shy away from.

It is not for nothing that she was called commander Land forces.

She is a great tactician. Watching her outmaneuver police and leave them guarding her empty home during walk to work and race with a patrol police car in her Noah was indeed awe inspiring.

I have taken long without hearing from her but I still hold her so dear and close to my heart.

Most of my memories in the party are with her, I have been arrested countless times with her, we often times mobilized together for demos.

I watched her inject part of her hard earned money in the struggle, she has been tortured and humiliated because of the struggle, one day I found her crying in a tiny cell at Kasangati, that was the first time I saw her cry.

She told me she was undressed during arrest, she said that was the lowest form of torture subjected to her, she told me, ” I would rather be sent to Luzira for months rather than be undressed.”

During the POA/Muntu race, many of us abandoned the Campaigns because of the limited resource envelope that couldn’t afford us comfortable accommodation, we used to sleep in homes of our FDC supporters, it was such an experience, Ingrid Turinawe stood all that, all she needed was clean bedsheets and she would sleep wherever she was provided.

Ingrid campaigned even for those that despised her, those that hated her, she mobilized for them, most of them won.

One day she returned from Rukungiri with a peeling skin, she was allergic to kasana but that didn’t stop her from campaigning for our flagbearer in Rukungiri.

Her role in the struggle can’t be narrated in a day or with a few paragraphs, I will one day write a book about her struggle for a better Uganda.

I will not forget all the good Ingrid has done for the struggle simply because she chose to run as an independent! Like you and I, Ingrid isn’t perfect, she is human.

Am sure that even though she is no longer with us in the party, we are still joined at the hip in our struggle against the despot.

Doreen Nyanjura is Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) Deputy Lord Mayor.

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