A Voice Behind the Walls

For years, Aneno Betty lived within the prison community as the wife of a prison warden. What she witnessed during that time changed her life forever.

Behind the high walls and locked gates, she met women who had spent years in detention without ever seeing a judge or having her day in court. Some had never even spoken to a lawyer. Their only crime was poverty, they could not afford legal representation. Many remained forgotten in the system, their cases unheard, their rights continually violated.

Beyond the injustice, Betty saw something even more heartbreaking. Women in prison lacked basic necessities including menstrual products and essential hygiene supplies. They endured their sentences in silence, stripped not only of freedom but of dignity. They had no platform to speak, no one to consistently amplify their concerns. The injustice was systemic. The silence was too loud.

Her life changed when she participated in leadership training at the Gulu Women’s Rights Centre (GWRC), where she connected with other women leaders and gained access to support networks, including pro bono legal services for incarcerated women. Through the training, she learned a deeper understanding of policy, advocacy, and the power of representation. It was there that her path became clear: she no longer wanted to help from the sidelines she wanted to influence the system itself.

Betty is now running for elected office, as Counselor of Women’s Prison, to represent and advocate for women in prison. She believes leadership is not about position, but about responsibility — the responsibility to speak where others cannot, and to act where others hesitate.

I have walked through the prison gates not as a visitor, but as a witness,” Betty says. “I have seen women lose years of their lives simply because they are poor. If given the mandate to lead, I will not sit comfortably in office  I will carry their voices into every decision-making room until justice is no longer a privilege, but a right.

Aneno Betty’s leadership journey was born behind prison walls but her vision reaches far beyond them. She is not contesting for power; she is contesting for change. Every woman, even behind bars, deserves dignity.