The first Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs, Rebecca Kadaga has voiced her worries regarding the absence of gender equality in the recent presidential pardons.
Her remarks follow President Museveni's decision to pardon 130 minor offenders.
On Tuesday, the Uganda Prisons Service announced that the President had granted these pardons on public health and humanitarian grounds.
“The pardon was granted on public health and humanitarian grounds. All the pardoned prisoners have since been released,” Prisons spokesperson, Frank Baine said in a statement.
However, Kadaga took to her X (formerly Twitter) account to question why the list of those pardoned did not include any women prisoners.
She pointed out that the previous pardon list also lacked female representation, prompting her to ask if there were no women prisoners who met similar criteria for pardon.
"My issue is were there no women prisoner's who had similar grounds? Interestingly even the last list of Presidential pardon did not include any women," Kadaga said.
The list of pardoned individuals primarily consists of those convicted of minor offenses such as theft, breaking and entering, obtaining money by false pretence, among others.
This is not the first instance of the President exercising his authority under Article 121 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda to pardon minor offenders; he similarly pardoned 200 prisoners last year.