In early September this year, Praise Aloikin Opoloje, along with Norah Kobusingye and Kemitoma Kyenzibo, was arrested and sent to Luzira Prison after staging a nude protest near the Ugandan parliament. 

Painted in the colours of the Ugandan flag, the trio demanded the resignation of speaker Anita Annet Among over allegations of gross corruption. Expectedly, the bold protest drew mixed reactions. While some admired their courage, others especially the moralists criticized them for “misusing” the female body.

Following their release, Opoloje has broken her silence, revealing the deep-rooted injustices that drove her to such an extreme form of protest. Born in 1999 to a peasant family in eastern Uganda’s Pallisa district, Opoloje grew up witnessing the devastating impact of corruption on her community.

“By the time I could understand the word ‘corruption,’ I bet I had seen more than 1,999 forms of it,” she shared at the recently concluded Human Rights Convention 2024.

Her frustrations stem from firsthand experiences with failing institutions, especially in health and education. 

“I cannot remember a day in Pallisa where I visited the outpatient department and it functioned seamlessly,” she lamented.

“I’ve come to realize that everyone loses under injustice. I cannot wait to lose more before I act. I’m afraid of what we could become if no one does something about it,” she said.

Opoloje, a law student initially dreamed of escaping Pallisa’s hardships through studying hard, getting a good job and running away with her mother. However, as fate would have it, she became pregnant during her third year at Makerere University.

Her tipping point came on August 20, 2023, when she gave birth to her daughter in an under-resourced hospital in Pallisa. She recounted lying in a cramped maternity ward, sharing space with three other struggling mothers, and being attended to by an exhausted midwife and two unskilled interns.

“I laid there for 45 minutes without sutures to stitch me. When my mum asked the midwife for help, she replied, ‘What do you expect us to do?’ We had to bribe her with Shs 5,000 to get hidden sutures,” Opoloje recounted.

That moment, she said, was transformative. “Injustice in Uganda is such a fair giver; everyone gets their fair share. You can run from it, but it will catch up with you.”

"We had no good roads in the city centre, town centre not until about 3 years ago. And it is in that same district where girls drop out of primary six to marry illiterate watermen, and God help her, he doesn't become an abusive partner. For 25 years of my life, I somehow managed to run from all this. I managed to run from the dilapidated school structures and find myself in schools in Mukono, studying with children of ministers."  

Her activism, marked by two arrests and remand to Luzira Prison, has attracted both criticism and praise. Accusations of being funded by foreign forces or seeking attention have not deterred her. 

“I don’t need a foreigner to point out the injustices I live with every day,” she asserted. “I’m not doing this for money. I’m doing this because I’m tired of running from problems. I want to be part of the solution.”

“Before I got where I am today, I used to ask the same questions. I don’t care how much someone pays me. I cannot wake up and put my line on the line for anything."

"It doesn't matter if you're doing something about it, it doesn't matter if you're waiting for Bobi Wine to stage the next march. Now, for me what made me realise this, was having my life at risk on a deathbed. Having my life being valued at a bribe of Shs 5,000 and this what most of us Ugandans do. We're asking ourselves if it's not me then why should I participate?" 

To those who claim she is seeking cheap popularity, she said she chose nonviolence in her pursuit of good leadership based on accountability and the rule of law.  

"How many more mothers will die on their deathbeds? How many more November massacres shall we have? How many children will drop out of school? How many more rights will be violated? How many more conferences shall we sit at and have conversations about issues that require us to go out on the streets and march? That requires us to go out to these communities and call people that are supposed to be accountable accountable."

Opoloje acknowledges the mental and physical toll activism takes, drawing inspiration from figures like Dr Kizza Besigye. She emphasizes the weight of expectations placed on activists.

“People don’t see us as ordinary individuals. For every compliment, there are ten thousand expectations. They ask, ‘Why march nude? You could have done it another way.’ But they don’t realize how exhausting this fight is,” she said.

When asked how she finds the bravery to continue, she said.

"When people ask me where do you get the bravery to be an activist? How do you choose every day to put your life on the line, they could shoot you, they could kill you, you have a daughter, you're not yet even done with school. I tell them these three things. I'm tired of running from the problem and I want to be part of the solution." By URN / The Observer