KCC FC head coach Abdallah Mubiru has said his players suffer no distress ahead of their Uganda Cup final in Ntungamo on Saturday.
While travelling in a separate car from the main squad (in a club bus), David Obua, Savio “Ginola” Kabugo & Joseph Ochaya were involved in nasty accident at Nekongolero, about 30Kms to Mbarara town on Tuesdayevening.
“The players have overcome the incident and we’re set for the cup final,” Mubiru noted.
Obua & Ochaya escaped unhurt while Kabugo was rushed to Lyantonde hospital were he spent a night but he’s been discharged this morning (Wednesday) though with mild chest pains.
Kabugo has been slowly recovering from a shin surgery on both of his legs and he’s yet to make a debut for KCC since his switch from SC Victoria.
KCC FC players stare at the vehicle that was involved in accident
KCC will play a friendly game with Mbarara United this evening (Wednesday) as the team acclimatizes to the conductions in western part of the country ahead of the cup final.
KCC FC is set to play SC Villa in the 41st edition of the Uganda Cup at Kyamate play grounds in Ntungamo on Saturday, both clubs have won the Uganda Cup 8 times a piece.
From Brazil to Russia, symbolic hand-over as Sepp Blatter FIFA president stands between Russian President Vladimir Puttin and Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff
From Brazil to Russia, symbolic hand-over as Sepp Blatter FIFA president stands between Russian President Vladimir Puttin and Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff
The FBI’s move against seven FIFA officials on charges of corruption is seen by most countries as a desperate Western effort to isolate Russia and re-open the bids for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.
Forget the analogies about football being more important than life and religion. The Beautiful Game has always been all about politics among nations – on and off the pitch. And now, it’s reaching Cold War levels.
On Friday, as soon as Sepp Blatter was elected president of the international football federation (FIFA) for another term, he was surrounded by African delegates, who shook his hands, hugged and kissed him.
Then came the Asians followed by Latin Americans. Earlier, when Blatter delivered his victory speech – a breathless jumble of platitudes — delegates from Africa, Asia and Latin America, Russia and Oceania gave him a standing ovation.
For a man who had been declared dead by the Western media just 24 hours ago, it was an incredible resurrection.
At FIFA’s convention hall in Zurich, as Blatter was being feted by the big bosses of regional and national federations, his challenger Prince Ali bin al-Hussein of Jordan sat in the front row with a long face.
Giving him company in sorrow was Michel Platini, the former French footballer and president of the European football federation (UEFA). After the Jordanian conceded defeat, Platini look shattered, trying to figure out what went wrong.
A day earlier, the Frenchman had hailed Prince Ali as the great hope for football and an antidote to corruption because “he is a prince and he doesn’t need the money”.
But few delegates, except UEFA members and their American partners, bought Platini’s theory.
This was FIFA’s bloodiest election ever. With the 209 members of the football body divided into two camps – Europe (minus Russia and Spain) and North America versus the rest of the world – it was clear that a winner would emerge only after some serious bloodletting.
But just two days before the Blatter-Prince Ali face-off, the United States weighed in with full force as the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested seven high-ranking FIFA representatives on corruption charges following a raid on their Zurich hotel.
Soon after the officials – all from Central and South America – were taken into custody, US attorney-general Loretta Lynch called them “criminals” and demanded that the World Cup allotted to Russia (2018) and Qatar (2022) be cancelled.
But a day is a long time in football politics. Twenty-four hours after Lynch’s barbs against FIFA and Blatter, the Swiss football administrator was back in control.
On Saturday morning, he blasted the US for “targeting” football’s world body and slammed Europe’s football bosses for a “hate” campaign.
Corruption is real, so is geopolitics
It’s an open secret that there is rampant corruption in football – at all levels. It’s no state secret that FIFA is run like the most private of private clubs with little public accountability.
Though all football federations and officials had been aware of the American investigation into allegations of bribery, going back to 1991, nobody expected early morning raids and arrests.
The raids were strategically timed, but if the purpose of the arrests was to make Blatter’s backers fall in line, it backfired.
“It happened like an intelligence operation. Our phones were tapped. The police came to the hotel and picked these officials up as if they were being kidnapped,” says a Brazilian football federation (CBF) official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Why arrest them just 24 hours before the election? They were not running away. Why did the cops come with three American journalists in tow? FIFA is based in Switzerland.
All its official business is done in Switzerland. How come the Americans suddenly jumped into it even as a Swiss probe in going on?” he asked.
As soon as news of the arrests spread among the delegates at the Zurich hotel, officials of various federations went into emergency meetings.
“The Europeans did not have the courage to arrest anyone. So they called the Americans to force everyone to vote for Prince Ali. It was clear to us that they wanted to get rid of Blatter and put their stooge in his place,” says the Brazilian who was in Zurich, when the drama unfolded.
“As things turned very ugly, even those of us who had doubts about Blatter’s leadership decided to vote for him?”
Blatter, even in his own words, is not perfect. Far from it. A smooth operator and great survivor, he has friends and enemies in equal numbers.
But why has this Swiss man suddenly become a villain for Europe and the US? Has Blatter damaged the Beautiful Game more than his predecessors, who too had to bow out in disgrace, in his 17 years at the helm? Why are the Americans so interested in “cleaning up” a game that has been managed mostly by Europeans so far?
Blatter’s main crime may not be corruption. It could be his reluctance to play geopolitical games as demanded by Europeans and Americans that has suddenly made him a villain.
Blatter’s problems with the US began in 2005 when he declined the then US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s demand for Iran be thrown out of the 2006 World Cup as part of sanctions against the Asian country.
Things became worse when the Palestinians were allowed to join the global football association.
“While Blatter has been trying to make football bigger and better by taking it to all parts of the world, the Europeans have been worried about losing control. For Americans, the game is an instrument of their politics and Blatter became a hurdle in it,” says the Brazilian official.
With 209 members, FIFA is bigger than the International Olympic Committee as well as the United Nations.
But it has been dominated by Europeans for most of its history. Under Blatter, things changed dramatically as he took the World Cup to new regions, especially to emerging countries.
“The past two editions of the World Cup have been played in South Africa and Brazil. The next one is in Russia. All three are BRICS countries. It’s obvious that the west is not very happy with this. All this talk about corruption is an attempt by Europe and America to bring the game back into their sphere of influence,” says Thiago Cassis, a reputed Brazilian football writer.
“There is a lot of corruption in European football too. They do not talk about it. This whole game is not about tackling corruption, but regaining control.”
In the good old days of European domination, nobody could have imagined that the World Cup would one day go to Africa, as it did in 2010, or that three emerging countries would host the mega-event back-to-back.
Now with China eyeing the 2026 tournament, which the US also wants to host, there is panic in the West as the emerging countries, with their growing economies and huge TV audiences, threaten to take the game away from them.
Even India, which has been given the Under-17 World Cup in 2017, may make a bid for a future World Cup.
Enter the FBI
This change has happened because of Blatter’s efforts at making football a truly global sport.
Under him, FIFA has invested millions of dollars in infrastructure and projects in Africa and Asia.
Despite the western media dubbing this as Blatter’s way of “buying” influence and indulging in corruption, the delegates from these regions stood by him on Friday.
They have seen some real change in their part of the world. “Blatter himself has always been a strong supporter of the African and Asian countries in football.
He’s basically broken with the duopoly that Europe and Latin America traditionally had in the sport.
He has made it more global and he has brought in people from these two vast regions, and they are grateful to him, and they support him,” Alexander Mercouris, international affairs editor for Russia Insider magazine, said in an interview just after the FIFA vote.
On Thursday, as the western media was providing running commentary on the “storm” in FIFA and baying for Blatter’s blood, 47 members of the Asian Football Confederation and the 54-member African Football Confederation declared their support for him. The South and Central American federations, some of whose members were not so sure about their support to Blatter, also decided to back him after the hotel raid. “Why did they arrest officials only from our federations and that too in Switzerland? Why didn’t they approach our governments through Interpol? Is it because they knew that extradition from South America to US is impossible?” asks a CBF official.
There was also anger about reports in the western media about the CBF chief Marco Polo Del Nero “fleeing” Zurich for Brazil as he “feared” arrest. In fact, when papers like the Guardian and New York Times were reporting Del Nero’s “escape” from the FIFA meeting, the Brazilian official was still in Switzerland. “They brought all this pressure on us to force us to vote for Prince Ali. They have been lobbying with us for months. When they didn’t see it working, they conducted the raid followed by veiled threats to others that they could be arrested too. Some British and American journalists were part of this pressure tactic,” the Brazilian official alleged.
From the versions of the Zurich raid given by some South American officials, it appears that the FBI, Swiss police and a few western reporters hunted them together. “As the Asian and African vote was solidly behind Blatter, they wanted the votes from the Americas for Prince Ali. They were desperate to make the prince the new chief of FIFA as he could re-open the bids for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments,” says a Paraguayan official who was in Zurich on the day of the drama. “Since the UK and the US lost the 2018 and 2022 bids respectively, they have been working to somehow cancel the World Cups in Russia and Qatar. They haven’t accepted the fact that they lost the bids in a fair contest.”
It is difficult to say if there was no corruption in these bids or that none of the arrested officials were involved in bribery. But there is also an element of truth in the allegation that Western governments and federations have been working together to tarnish the process by which Russia and Qatar won the right to host the event.
On Thursday, soon after the news about the arrests in Zurich broke out on wires, Ryu Spaeth, a columnist for The Week magazine, in an article titled “Why the next World Cup should be held in the U.S.A” said that the “bidding must be done again, and if it is too late, then the World Cups in 2018 and 2022 should be hosted in countries that already have the infrastructure to absorb a massive sporting event, such as the United States, which was among the countries that lost the 2022 bid to Qatar.”
This was very much in line with the official US position on the World Cup in Russia. Basking in the glory of the FBI’s move, Lorreta Lynch had made a similar demand on Thursday. In fact, neoconservative commentators in the US have been training their guns at Russia for quite some time. The attacks have become more intense since last year’s Ukrainian crisis which resulted in Crimea’s “accession” to Russia and Ukraine turning into almost a failed state. In recent weeks, Republican hardliner John McCain repeatedly called on FIFA to “oust” Blatter because of “his continued support for Russia.” According to Neil Clark, a British journalist, Blatter has been in the American firing line because he “went to Moscow not that long ago and said that there was no question of the World Cup being taken away from Russia.”
Power, money and partnership
With Russia still under Western economic sanctions following the Crimean takeover, the US is keen to further squeeze Moscow and deny it a chance to showcase its soft-power to a global television audience of a billion-plus people. Besides, there is serious money at stake. The World Cup is the most lucrative sporting event in the world, eclipsing even the Olympics. The 2014 qualifying rounds and final tournament brought in $4.8bn over four years and it gave a much-needed boost to small businesses and tourism in Brazil, besides creating a positive image of the country for millions of foreign visitors. A similar boost for the Russian economy and its image in the world could negate the West’s efforts to isolate Russia in the international community.
While the Americans have their geopolitical games to play, the Europeans are concerned about power. Dependent on South America and Africa for football talent, and, increasingly Asia for TV audiences, the Europeans know they are losing control. “Europe wants to import all the labour from us because that gives them a global TV audience and lots of money. But they do not want to give us World Cups or share any power with us,” says an African delegate who voted for Blatter.
Demonised in Europe and the US, Blatter remains popular outside the West because he took football where no other FIFA boss dared to. “The game is for the poor, not for the elite. And Blatter brought it to them in Africa, in Asia, and that’s why most of Africa and Asia voted for him,” Talal Badr, President of Union of Arab National Olympic Committees, told journalists on Saturday. “We don’t like governments to interfere with sports or federations. We don’t want these governments to control the results or impose on us where the game goes,” Badr added.
Whether or not Blatter is involved in corruption can only be revealed by an honest probe. The FBI investigation may become bigger and indict him later. For the present, however, Blatter remains in command of world football as most countries believe what the ‘West’ is trying to do is rob ‘the Rest’ of the chance to be equal partners in the only truly global game.
Shobhan Saxena is an independent journalist based in Rio de Janeiro. He has covered the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2013 and the FIFA World Cup in 2014, besides writing extensively on Brazilian and South American football
CDF Gen. Katumba Wamala (c) and commander of Ugandan contingent in somalia, Brig. Sam Kavuma (R) in Barawe, 220km south of Mogadishu
CDF Gen. Katumba Wamala (c) and commander of Ugandan contingent in somalia, Brig. Sam Kavuma (R) in Barawe, 220km south of mogadish
KAMPALA: The Al Shabaab on Tuesday lost control of key town to African Union forces from Ugandan contingent, South West of Capital Mogadishu.
A statement issued by Ugandan army says in operation code named “Western Sweep,” Uganda Battle Group XV, under the command of Col Silvio Aguma, drove away the militants from Torotoro town, 100km South West of Mogadishu.
The AMISOM forces started the advance from Awdigile to Torotoro at 1500hr on June 1, 2015 and by5:35am, on June 2, 2015; they had covered 40kms and fully captured the town.
“We can confirm that we are fully in charge of the town but we are making a firm base in case of a counter attack.” Col Aguma said in telephone interview, a few minutes after the capture of the town.
He added that the defeated Al shabaab force fled westwards towards Dugul and Bulwakaba which is 40km away from Torotoro. “Intelligence indicates that they are likely to settle at a presumably safe distance from us of up to 100km at Dinsur. But there is no where safe for them,” Col Aguma said.
The town of Torotoro had continued to provide a safe haven to Al shabaab militants since the liberation of Mogadishu and key towns of lower Shabelle by AMISOM and Somali National Army. The Al shabaab had freely operated in this area recruiting, training, indoctrinating and laying Improvised Explosive Devises along Afgoye – Marka – Barawe routes.
“The town also harboured key Al Shabaab leaders, including foreign fighters who planned and coordinated terrorist activities in Mogadishu and Lower Shebelle” Col Aguma said.
Having been displaced from Marka, Jannale, Awdigile and Qoryooley and Barawe, the terrorist misfit had resorted to Torororo as the nearest place of aboard to Mogadishu. Recently, they attempted to overrun a Somali National Army unit at Awdigile, springing their attack from Torotoro.
“Following their attempt on Awdigile, it was urgent that we took this town. They are now on the run. I don’t think it’s wise for a person to be on the run forever. Its time they denounced terror and joined in National Peace building,” Said Col Aguma.
In coordination with the Somalia security forces and international partners, AMISOM forces have showed determination to defeat violent extremism which undermines the peaceful, prosperous and democratic character of the Somali State.
Sepp Blatter was close to tears as he urged the staff to "stay strong"
Fifa’s Sepp Blatter won an election on Friday
Sepp Blatter says he will resign as president of football’s governing body Fifa amid a corruption scandal.
In announcing his exit, the 79-year-old Swiss has called an extraordinary Fifa congress “as soon as possible” to elect a new president.
Blatter was re-elected last week, despite seven top Fifa officials being arrested two days before the vote as part of a US prosecution.
But he said: “My mandate does not appear to be supported by everybody.”
Fifa was rocked last week by the arrests on charges of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering as part of a US prosecution that also indicted 14 people.
A separate criminal investigation by Swiss authorities into how the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were allocated is also under way.
“I am very much linked to Fifa and its interests. Those interests are dear to me and this is why I am taking this decision,” added Blatter.
“What counts most to me is the institute of Fifa and football around the world.”
Gunmen attacked the airport in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo’s largest city, Goma, in an overnight raid in which four government soldiers and three suspected assailants were killed, a local official and a witness said on Tuesday.
A Congolese security official involved in the clashes and a Goma-based diplomat said the assailants were Mai-Mai fighters, members of one of the dozens of armed militias that control large parts of Congo’s mineral-rich eastern borderlands.
Residents of Goma, home to around 1 million people and capital of Congo’s volatile North Kivu province, said they heard intermittent heavy gunfire for several hours beginning around 1 a.m. on Tuesday (1900 ET, Monday).
“They attacked the depot at the airport. There was a heavy exchange of gunfire,” North Kivu governor Julien Paluku told Reuters, referring to the attackers only as “bandits”.
Paluku said soldiers from the Congolese army’s elite Republican Guard repelled the attack and pursued the assailants from the airport, which lies on the edge of the city, into the city center where the shooting continued.
A Reuters witness saw the bodies of four Republican Guard soldiers at the airport along with those of three alleged assailants. Two of the government soldiers had their throats slit, while the two others had been shot.
The witness also saw four men, dressed in Congolese army shirts but wearing civilian trousers, that army officials at the airport said had been taken prisoner during the clashes.
The security official, who asked not to be named, said that in addition to the four soldiers killed, another six were seriously wounded, adding that the army had taken 10 prisoners during the fighting.
Governor Paluku had earlier confirmed that one soldier was killed in the raid.
A second witness said there was no visible damage to the airport terminal itself and planes were continuing to use the runway, though sporadic bursts of gunfire could still be heard throughout the morning.
As the Uganda Cranes start preparation for their 2017AFCON qualifiers, Head coach Milutin ‘Micho’Sredojevic is not fazed by a busy schedule.
Cranes entertain Gambia next Tuesday in an International Build Up, before kicking off the 2017AFCON qualifiers against Botswana four days later.
“Everybody knows from now until the beginning of January we will play a lot of games, a lot of difficult ones,” Micho told the press after a light training session in Luzira, Prisons stadium on Tuesday.
On June 20th, the locally based players play Tanzania in Zanzibar for the opening leg of the CHAN 2016 qualifier.
Micho is yet to release his final squad as he is monitoring the physical fitness of some foreign based players whose football seasons on recess. Some U-23 and CHAN squad players will feature in the training today.
South African based Geofrey Massa was one of the four forwards who trained with the team on Monday evening.
The others were Alex Bukenya Kitata (The Saints F.C) and the URA duo of Frank Kalanda and Robert Ssentongo.
Other foreign based players, Denis Iguma (Lebanon), midfielder, Boban Zirintusa (South Africa with Polokwane F.C) and Brian Majwega, who ply for Azam F.C in the Tanzanian league plus Alex Kakuba, from Portugal.
EAC Secretary General Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera makes his remark
EAC Secretary General Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera makes his remark
Travellers and people living near the border lines of the five East Africa Community and other regional states are set to benefit from a multi-million dollar intervention aimed at stemming the onslaught of HIV/Aids in the region.
Dubbed the Cross-Border Health Integrated Partnership, the five-year intervention is to be coordinated by the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in sustained efforts ‘to achieve an Aids-free generation’.
Amb. Dr. Richard Sezibera addresses the participants during the launch
During the launch of the programme on May 27 at the EAC headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania, the Secretary General Dr. Richard Sezibera noted that the EAC and the United States enjoy cordial relations aimed at strengthening cooperation over shared priorities.
“Our partnership with the U.S. Government will continue to be expanded and strengthened through mutual development and U.S. donor funding for our programs,” Amb. Dr. Sezibera, was quoted as saying in a release issued May 28.
“CB-HIPP also provides an opportunity for the EAC to conduct strategic discussions on joint priorities, which will inform the upcoming 5th EAC Strategy (2017-2021) and the USAID Regional Strategy (2015-2020) under development,” he added.
USAID/Kenya and East Africa Mission Director Karen Freeman(in red)
At the same function the USAID/Kenya and East Africa Mission Director Karen Freeman noted that cross-border communities and travellers, if not given the necessary social attention, were vulnerable to Aids and other infectious diseases.
“As populations in cross-border towns increasingly move across the region, they become vulnerable to infectious diseases, which, without proper treatment, caneasily be spread along the transport corridors,” Ms Freeman was quoted as saying.
She added: “CB-HIPP will encourage civil society, governments and Regional Economic Communities to expand health services to restrict the spread of HIV and other infectious diseases, as well as bring together social structures and grass root organizations to implement HIV-prevention activities.”
According to the release, the CB-HIPP is supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and Trade Africa, and will complement the more-than-$1 billion U.S Government investment in the region ‘and efforts led by the EAC to safeguard the health of people living, working and traveling along the transport corridors and cross-border sites.’
Among others the programme targets female sex workers, gays, drug users, truck drivers, migrant workers, people living with HIV and other vulnerable community members.
DP National Chairman Baswaari Kezaala addressing the media
DP National Chairman Baswaari Kezaala addressing the media
Following sporadic killings of Ugandans in various regions of the country, the opposition Democratic Party has called upon Ugandans to form security committees, saying the ruling National Resistance Movement government has failed to protect the citizens.
According to DP, the security situation of Uganda has been deteriorating for the past 15 years, with crimes committed including among others; child and adult sacrifice, killings including the recent murders of Muslim clerics and other high profile people and, the attacks on university students.
Addressing the weekly press conference Mr.Baswari Kezaala, the DP national chairman said that upon creation the village security committees would voluntarily guard their areas.
“We did it in the 80s during Obote II when security was lacking and it worked,” Mr Kezaala said today at City House, the party headquarters.
The localized security system known as nkuuma kange literally meaning, ‘I am keeping my own property’, involves drafting a timetable for different groups or individuals to carry out patrols during the night and ensuring security in their areas of residence.
“The committees have to contain able-bodied men from different homesteads of that particular society, and they are supposed to work in shifts,” Mr Kezaala said.
He added: “Government doesn’t have a clear stand on this issue, this is why they keep attributing the murders to ADF even when they say Jamilu Mukulu was arrested; therefore, it has failed to protect its people and now they should take the initiative themselves.”
The DP stalwart also condemned police brutality especially while arresting opposition leaders and asked members of the force to remain professional and not act as puppets for the NRM in a bid to promote the ruling party’s interests.
“This act of brutality is totally unacceptable especially towards elections,” Mr.Kezaala said, adding: “We call upon government and Kayihura (police boss) in particular to revisit his position and do his work of keeping law and order.”
It is now 130 years since the Uganda Martyrs were brutally murdered (by burning) on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga between 1885 and 1887 for the religious beliefs and inclinations.
Very few or none of us living today will live to be the age of 130, but the Martyrs still live in our minds because of the legacy they left. And that is why hundreds of thousands of people are converging on Namugongo Martyrs Shrines (both Catholic and Anglican) tomorrow to celebrate the lives of these gallant sons of Uganda who have made this country one of eternal pilgrimage since the Catholic Martyrs were Canonised in 1964.
Indeed, if all goes as reported, this year Pope Francis 1 is expected to visit Uganda. If this happens, he will be the third Pope to visit the country that produced some of the most celebrated people of the Catholic faith, the Uganda martyrs.
Several arguments have been raised by scholars, with some saying those killed were rebellious to Kabaka Mwanga and therefore had to face the consequences resulting from what they believed in. However, what remains outstanding is that these young men, most of them below 25 years were steadfast in the conviction that religion was an important aspect of society: it gives rise to morality.
Today, the Ugandan society is at crossroads; moral decadence has ensconced the minds of most of the public sector practitioners, with corruption taking the lead in most of their actions. Similarly, other areas of society have not been spared of the decadence, and we now have to brace ourselves everyday for news about social malaises like murders, rape, practice of Gayism and Lesbianism and pornography, among others.
So, this year as the country pays tribute to the Martyrs, it is important to emulate what they stood and died for, as that would help the country re-orient its moral bearing.
Former Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) vice president has rejected the election of Jimmy Akena as the party’s new president.
Joseph Bossa, who contested for the UPC presidency in the just-concluded party elections says Akena compelled party’s Electoral Commission to declare him winner.
In an interview with EagleOnline today, the outgoing party vice president said Akena and his supporters hijacked the EC officials, after group of about 50 Akena loyalists led by Oyam South MP Betty Amongi and Kole MP Fred Ebil reportedly stormed the tallying room and held the officials hostage.
“As officials (EC) were still processing, they were hijacked, forced to sign and declare Akena the winner,” said Bossa.
The former UPC vice president named Edward Seganyi, a one Mr. Wako, and Canon Nyote as some of the commissioners that were held hostage. He further said they (other presidential aspirants) had petitioned the party’s EC about the irregularities in the electoral process, adding, that “the election process was so badly done, it could not reflect the party values.”
On Monday, amid heavy police deployment, the party’s EC led by Edward Sseganyi declared Jimmy Akena winner having won in 67 districts.
However, Mr. Bossa said he and some of the other presidential contenders would consider going to court, if their grievances were not considered. “One step at a time, for now we are planning to hold meetings with EC,” he said.
Prof. Edward James Kakonge , another presidential contender said the party’s electoral body had not declared the winner and that he was waiting for the final word from the EC commissioners. “I have not seen any document declaring him (Akena) winner, I am waiting for the official results,” he said on phone.
Efforts to reach UPC ‘president-elect’ Akena, who is also the Lira Municipality MP for comment were futile, as when called on his personal number; he picked but switched off after introduction.
Jimmy Akena joined the UPC presidential race last week after consenting with UPC party officials but earlier his supporters led by wife Betty Amongi had ran to court seeking an injunction on the elections.
If confirmed UPC President, Akena will become the third member of founding party president Dr Apollo Milton Obote’s family to head the ‘Independence party’.
His father led the party in the 60s and 80s, while the mother became party leader in 2005 after the demise of her husband. Now, if Akena gets to steer the party, the UPC will follow closely what happened in India’s ‘Independence Party’, where the Gandhis have held sway over the Indian National Congress for close to a century.
Other candidates results; David Pulkol-12 districts, Joseph Bossa-11, David Nyote-4, Julius Ochen-9, Edward Kakonge-2, Benson Obua-1, Dan Okello-0, Sam Musamali Wandeka-0.
