Agather Atuhaire, a relentless Ugandan human rights activist has received the United States Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award. She was handed the award by Anthony Blinken, the US secretary of State.
In a statement, the US State department described Atuhaire as “a renowned journalist, lawyer and social justice activist who advocates for human rights, public accountability, and the rule of law in Uganda.”
The department said it was awarding Atuhaire for her work as a journalist which has seen her bring to light parliamentary abuse of process and excess, threats to multi-party democracy and governance, health sector abuses, sexual harassment in the NGO sector, and violations of students’ rights.
Through the course of her work, Atihaire has faced several threats to her life. She has been evicted from her house by a landlord who came under pressure from the people she exposes and has been banned from appearing on one of the most prominent TV stations.
She recently published documents which showed that the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Mathias Mpuuga secretly worked with Parliament leaders to award himself Shs 500m as a ‘service award.’
Mpuuga has since been asked by the National Unity Platform (NUP) to resign his position as Commissioner of Parliament in the wake of the scandal.
