In just 10 days, Kyotera’s Rose Nantongo buried her mother, father and aunt
April 7, 2021 Rose Nantongo. Courtesy photo
On January 14, 2021, Fortunate Rose Nantongo, a 25-year-old lawyer, was elected as the new woman MP for Kyotera district.
Ordinarily, this would be a normal story for the simple fact that the 11th Parliament will be one of the youngest in the history of Uganda. In fact, at 25 years, Nantongo is not the youngest. There are others like 23-year-old Frank Kabuye of Kassanda South, a university student who beat Simeo Nsubuga, a former police spokesman.
But Nantongo is one of that rare group of politicians that get catapulted to the national scene by tragedy. In the 11th Parliament, there will be two of them. The other is Kayanga Baroda, who replaced her mother Hajati Rehema Watongola who died in the middle of a campaign due to Covid-19.