Who is Jesca Ababiku? Flash Uganda Media looks at her biography, age, husband, family, tribe, and relationship with Agnes Atim Apea, Ignatius Wamakuyu Mudimi, the Council Member for Kyambogo University, Adjumani district, National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda’s Council, National Resistance Movement, Presidential Affairs Committee, the early life and education of the current Woman MP of the Adjumani district in Uganda.
Jesca Ababiku is a Ugandan politician and educator. She is currently a member of Uganda’s Parliament, representing the women of the Adjumani district.
She belongs to the National Resistance Movement (NRM) political party. Jesca loves listening to music and reading.
Early life and Education
Ababiku Jesca was born on the 17th of July 1945, in the Adjumani district where she was raised. She attended Adjumani Girls Primary School and graduated with her Primary Leaving Examination in 1990.
She received her Uganda Certificate of Education from Metu Secondary School in 1994, and her Uganda Advanced Certificate of Education from Moyo Secondary School in Moyo Town in 1997.
Afterwards, Jesca enrolled and received her Diploma in Education from Muni National Teachers College in 1999. She earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Makerere University in 2006, and a master’s degree in education from Gulu University in 2013.
Career and Professional Work Experience
After graduating from Muni National Teachers College, Ababiku became a teacher. She began teaching at Alere Secondary School in 2000.
Alere Secondary School is a government-aided secondary school in the Adjumani district’s Adropi sub-county. It began in 1991 as a boarding school for refugee children, primarily from South Sudan.
Ababiku, as a teacher, quickly became involved in political matters to help her school and her students. In 2002, she was elected to the Board of Governors as a Teacher’s Representative and District Councillor for the Adjumani District local government.
She became a Council Member for Kyambogo University and a Secretary of Production for Adjumani District Local Government in 2004, after being appointed Head of the History Department at Alere Secondary School.
She resigned as Head of the History Department in 2006 to devote more time to politics, though she continued to be a history teacher.
Jesca Ababiku, an advocate for disabled rights and the chairwoman of the Adjumani Disabled Persons Association since 2002, was elected to the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda’s Council.
She then gave up teaching, being a District Councillor for Adjumani District Local Government, and her roles with the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda and the Adjumani Disabled Persons Association to run for Parliament of Uganda in 2010.
Ababiku Jesca ran as an independent (though she later joined the National Resistance Movement) for the Adjumani District Woman Representative seat and won. She garnered 17,037 votes and won the four-way race for the seat.
Achievements and Awards
Ababiku Jesca serves on the Public Accounts Committee and the Presidential Affairs Committee in parliament where she is the chairperson.
She also belongs to the Uganda Women’s Parliamentary Association (UWOPA), where she serves on the Employment Act/Economic Empowerment Round Table Committee, which is chaired by Agnes Kunihira.
Controversies
A woman member of Parliament for Adjumani District Hon. Ababiku Jesca, handed over the disputed UGX20 million that parliament had appropriated to its members to the district COVID-19 taskforce, as directed by the Court and President Yoweri Museveni.
On April 4, Uganda’s parliament approved a supplemental budget of UGX304 billion to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, with MPs receiving Shs20 million each.
The matter sparked public outrage, prompting the court and President Museveni to order that the funds be channelled through MPs to district taskforce teams in their respective districts.
Hon. Ababiku said she wanted to follow the directive and hand over the Shs20m to the RDC, Mr Taban Data Peter, who was also the chair of the COVID-19 task force.
Hon. Jesca Ababiku, who appeared before the Budget Committee on Thursday, 28 April 2022 to defend the proposed sectoral budget estimates and unfunded priorities for FY2022/23, laid a request seeking an additional Shs14.2 billion to effectively facilitate the country’s 27 model villages.
The Budget Committee, chaired by Ignatius Wamakuyu Mudimi, was not pleased with the proposal, calling it a duplication of programs, given that the government is planning to implement the Parish Development Model (PDM).
Agnes Atim Apea, the woman MP for Amolatar stated that the committee wanted them to give more money to State House for assistance with the 27 presidential model villages, however, the President was using the Parish Development Model for the same purpose. “Let us not contradict our policies; we cannot be talking about PDM and model villages.” She concluded.
The Presidential Initiative on Model Villages is a project within the State House’s poverty alleviation initiatives that began in 2004 intending to create model farms in various districts.
This was done to transform impoverished communities into self-sustaining communities through best agricultural practices, market-led production, and value addition.
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