Disability is not inability, so the saying goes in Uganda. It is not unusual to find representatives of people with disabilities at the steps of Uganda's national assembly after a day's proceedings in Parliament, discussing pertinent issues. There are such 47,000 disabled people in the country, at national regional and local level.

Disabled people in Uganda vote for their own representatives in parliamentary and local authority levels, part of the process which President Museveni has described as "Sowing the Mustard Seed".

The Hon James Mwandah, MP says that the disability movement in Uganda now has strong roots. It was not always so. On his first day in Parliament, he was stopped by an Usher, "Sir", he said, "You cannot go in there with sticks. You could use them as a weapon if the debate gets hot. You could hit other MPs with them".

Mr Mwandah indicated he needed the sticks to support him in walking and that he is a PWD. "A what?" asked the Usher. "A Person With Disability", Mr Mwandah said. These are some of the reflections by Uganda's fledging apex body for the people with disabilities - the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda NUDIPU, as they marked the World Disability Day on December 4.

Today, such initial difficulties are long over-come. The Hon Alex Ndezi MP, is permitted by resolution of the House to bring in a non-elected interpreter onto the floor of parliament so that he can use sign language in debates. Members no longer raise eye-brows when the Hon Margaret Baba Diri clacks away, taking Braille notes. With their two other colleagues, Mr Hood Katuramu and Ms Florence Naiga MP, they form a well respected and active group.

Representation in the National Legislature is however for the estimated 1.7 million disabled Ugandans, only the pinnacle of the pyramid of power. The Local Government Act of 1997 provides for the election of one disabled woman and one disabled man to every village, parish sub-county and district council. The 47,000 representatives sitting on directly elected bodies are easily the largest group of disabled politicians anywhere in the world.

All the chosen often in hotly contested elections by PWDs, by agreement with the government, NUDIPU, draws up a register and then organises a series of electoral colleges or unions at every level of administration.

Uganda's Minister of Labour, Gender and Social Development the Hon Janat Mukwaya frowns at the questions. She is a very large and determined individual who spent six years in the bush fighting with President Yoweri Museveni. As guerrilla fighters. She is also remarkably well briefed, one of the few Ugandan Ministers who can quote the UN Standard Rules from memory without an explanatory note from the civil service.

"After the troubles of the Amin and Obote years", she says, "the National Resistance Movement was determined to build an inclusive, non-partisan society. Above all, we were determined to empower marginalised groups - women and disabled people in particular, but also workers and young folks". "It is our own Ugandan evolution" says the Minister. "We want the democratisation of society through the participation of people who were previously excluded".

In Uganda, the disabled MPs speak on a wide range of issues alongside their colleagues elected on a straight constituency ticket. However, their main brief is to keep a watchful eye on all drafts of legislation that might affect their own voters. "When the Children's' Bill was introduced, there was no provision for inclusive education for children with disabilities", commented Ndezi. We got that changed. When land Reform was introduced, we got exemption for PWDs who might be away from their village receiving treatment.

Five hours down the road from Kampala on the Kampala - Kabale highway to Rwanda, past hundreds of kilometers of banana plantations, lies the district of Bushenyi, home of more than a half a million people of the Banyankole ethnic group of western Uganda.

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