By KT Reporter
Some members of the political elite in Lango have proved too hard to understand/be understood. They seem to be perpetually engaged in endless shifting of goalposts. That simply means that whoever sets out to be their adversary can never score in their net.
Recently Dr. Odonga Otto appeared on one of Lira City’s leading radio stations and asserted that in his view, it was better for Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng to remain the top minister at health (where she had worked for 15 straight years) than being made the Government Chief Whip. Odonga Otto, who these days calls himself a political philosopher, in his characteristic freestyle added that this was a demotion and likened the GCW role to that of a class monitor.
Yet those who knew better, and thought differently, respectfully pushed back contradicting Otto’s view point. The adversaries’ major point was that the position of GCW was politically much more powerful in real terms than a lot of Ugandans were yet to realize. Some of the Lango elites, including those who knew the truth but just had personal vendettas and old scores to settle, picked up on Otto’s narrative and menacingly amplified the false political messaging that the Lira City Woman MP had indeed been demoted. The intention was to demoralize her supporters by creating an impression that Gen Museveni didn’t value her that much.
Because such actors weren’t being truthful in their actions/utterances, the truth has finally caught up with them sooner than they thought. They have already contradicted themselves by taking to social media to claim that many sons and daughters of Lango didn’t get lucrative positions to lead Committees of Parliament on the ruling party side because Dr. Aceng single-handedly frustrated them, using her position of GCW.
That Otuke’s Paul Omara and Lira Woman MP Auma Linda would have respectively become Chairperson for Budget Committee and Agriculture Committee or back bench commissioner if it wasn’t for Jane Ruth Aceng blocking them.
Some of the social media reports have indicated that the duo’s suitability was diminished because of the disloyalty they exhibited in January 2026 elections when they defied the NRM party position and backed UPC first lady Betty Amongi for the position of Lira City Woman MP. More political sanctioning could be truly awaiting such traitors of the mighty NRM because Gen Museveni, the all-powerful NRM Chairman, is legendary when it comes to punishing political disloyalty. That, surely, can’t be blamed on Aceng.
Auma Linda deluded herself believing that, because she had been the agriculture Committee chairperson in the 11th Parliament, she automatically was entitled to stagnating and getting back the same role. Museveni, who has always used committee headships as training ground and has always elevated excellent performers to Cabinet positions or Commission, must have found Auma Linda’s performance less than satisfactory. Her failure to perform in a manner that catches the H. E’s eye and impresses the appointing authority and the rest of the CEC membership shouldn’t be blamed on anyone else but herself.
Some of the elite class members who support such losers and their illogical utterances have gone as far as inciting tribal sentiments claiming that Auma and Omara’s failure to get any committee to chair is indicative that the president and other big men in NRM are ought to marginalize Lango. That is blackmail which Museveni abhors and likes punishing, as opposed to rewarding. And these days he is an easily irritable old man who resents cadres who make like riding on such sectarian claims while trying to antagonize him with an entire tribal community.
Dr. Samuel Opio too ceased to be chair for the Health Committee and was repurposed to head to Science & Technology. Boniface Okot too was moved from Trade to ICT. All this has since been fallaciously blamed by the detractors on Dr. Aceng. The same people are equally unhappy and have resorted to hiding behind Masindi woman MP Florence Akiki to dispute the posting of Otuke woman MP Susan Abeja to serve as one of the back bench commissioners of parliament. Especially Paul Omara supporters didn’t like this because they resent the fact that Hon Abeja recognizes Aceng’s seniority and effective leadership, which the Lira city voters endorsed on 15th Jan 2026.
The view of such detractors is that Auma and Omara missed out because of Aceng and that Abeja got the commission slot because of Aceng. Which sort of defective reasoning is this? How can the same Aceng, whose alleged downfall they had been celebrating saying she had been demoted, wield so much power at the same time? This detractors’ reasoning would imply an unusually powerful class monitor who can even influence or cause the transfer of the head teacher or DEO and redeployment of teachers. That doesn’t amount to Aceng being powerless, insignificant and demoted in the new Museveni government the way it was being parroted.
Those utopian elite class members making such assertions must either be uninformed, misinformed or knowledgeable people but who set out to deliberately deceive the good honorable people of Lango because they erroneously take them to be imbeciles. You also have to be someone very contemptuous and disrespectful of the people of Lango to set out to lie to them like that. How can one said to have been demoted and rendered powerless be at the same time the one responsible for people not getting to chair Committees which they desired to? Something simply doesn’t add up. One can simply not be demoted, powerless and yet influencing such high level deployment of cadres at the same time. It simply can’t be.
