By KT Reporter
UPC president Jimmy Akena has called on presidential candidate Kyagulanyi not to stop doing the right thing, which is to reach out and forge alliances with Ugandans from other parts of Uganda.
At a press conference at Uganda House on Wednesday, Akena defended Kyagulanyi’s decision to go honor Uganda’s former president Milton Obote by visiting his grave in Akokoro Apac district. He said there is no way Kyagulanyi can get votes in places like Lango unless he deliberately reaches out to such communities.
Akena said that those cursing Kyagulanyi are Museveni’s NRM supporters who are just using Buganda as cover to disorganize the NUP leader, to provide cover for Museveni to once again get Buganda votes.
He added that there is nothing wrong with Kyagulanyi doing what he did because he can’t win and become president of Uganda with votes from only Buganda. Akena made it clear that what Kyagulanyi did increased his chances to win votes in Lango sub region. He called it a courageous act for which leaders at Mengo should be praising Kyagulanyi instead of tolerating those who are condemning him.
Akena said there is a lot of history between Buganda and Lango which a lot of people are not aware of because the whole country is covered with Museveni’s propaganda. He said that when Kabaka Mwanga and Kabalega fled the British and Semei Kakungulu Lwakirenzi, they ended up in Lango where a group of elders, led by Milton Obote’s grandfather, hid and fed them for four years before the British stormed the place and forcefully exiled them to Syechelles islands.
He added that when he was president in the country, his father Milton Obote promoted Buganda by building hospitals at Gombe, Nakaseke, Kiboga and other places. Akena said that even himself is a son of Buganda because his mother Miria Kalule Obote comes from a prominent Ganda family in Kampala’s Kawempe division which is part of Kabaka’s Kyadondo county.
He said Kyagulanyi is right to ignore the bad history of 1966 when his father Obote fought with Kabaka Mutesa who ended up being exiled in Britain from where he died in 1969, because time has come to let by-gonnes be by-gonnes.
Akena said today’s young Ugandans have better issues to address instead of focussing on events of almost 60 years ago. “In 1966 even myself I wasn’t alive. I hadn’t yet been born even though you now see me with grey hair,” Akena said.
He said that Museveni is panicking and very much afraid about the possibility of Kyagulanyi sweeping votes in Lango and going on to become the president of Uganda. Akena says this is why the regime propagandists are now all out to scare Baganda voters to turn against Kyagulanyi who he says should be praised for spearheading reconciliation between Buganda and the people of Lango.
Akena also said now is the time to expose the many falsehoods which Museveni and his cadres have been telling about the history of vote rigging in Uganda especially the 1980 elections which the UPM leader badly lost and used as justification to go to the bush claiming that his votes had been stolen, whereas not.
Akena was responding to condemnation Kyagulanyi’s visit to Obote’s grave has generated especially among sections of the elite and the older generation in Kampala. He said Kyagulanyi shouldn’t apologize to anyone because he did nothing wrong.
