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Inside battle for supremacy in Teso sub-region
L-R: Serere Woman MP Hellen Adoa, President Museveni and NRM flag bearer Philip Oucor campaign in the recently concluded Serere by-elections. PHOTOS/ COURTESY
What you need to know:
- Going by the results of Serere County by-elections, Teso Sub-region seems to be now in the firm fist of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), but even with victory conflict is always on the horizon.
The trick has always been that President Museveni arrives towards the end of the campaigns and his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party secures a by-election win a day later.
For Serere County by-elections, which were organised to fill the void left by Bishop Patrick Okabe who met his death in a motor accident late last year, it didn’t work.
Museveni, who was campaigning for NRM flag bearer Philip Oucor, marketed the Parish Development Model (PDM) saying it was the silver bullet that would eliminate poverty from the 821 parishes that make up Teso sub-region.
“This money is your parish bank (Sacco), borrow from your parish bank, pay back with small interest,” Museveni, who has been in power since 1986, said.
NRM vice chairperson Mike Mukula.
He also had time to explain Universal Primary Education (UPE), saying 723 primary schools in Teso get about Shs7b from government for the children of poor citizens to study for free.
“You still find people chasing children from school, we told these people; if you think this money is not enough to tell us to send more money, but don’t chase children from school,” he reiterated.
The President also thought talking about Lake Kyoga, which is critical in supplying water in the Teso, would swing the voters into the yellow column. Museveni said his decision to deploy the army on the lakes has restored fish stocks and that 15 fish factories out of 22 that had closed are now operating.
Museveni’s efforts weren’t enough as Emmanuel Omoding, the son of Okabe who stood as an independent, emerged as the victor with 15,638 votes, while his closest rival, Oucor of NRM, got 13,206 votes.
Oucor’s lose ended the string of victories that NRM had managed to put together since the 2021 General Election.
Loss in Serere
The loss in Serere has been attributed to divisions within the ruling party in Teso sub-region. While Museveni was campaigning for Oucor, it was very clear that many of the MPs from Teso were campaigning for Omoding, with sources claiming they had blessings of Ms Anita Among, the Speaker of Parliament.
Evidence of Among’s support for Omoding is mainly circumstantial with her lieutenants such as Kasilo County MP Elijah Okupa, Soroti City West MP Jonathan Ebwalu and Soroti City East MP Herbert Ariko deeply involved in Omoding’s campaign machinery.
On the election eve, Okupa, who was being protected by bodyguards assigned to him by Parliament, was briefly detained in Ocaapa Town Council where he was conducting training of agents for Omoding, but police claimed that he was bribing voters.
While Omoding had a strong team of backers, Oucor on the other hand had a slim team of campaigners led by Harriet Nakamya, the Serere Resident District Commissioner (RDC), who legally shouldn’t be engage in partisan politics since she is a civil servant.
Others were from the NRM secretariat and were led by Ms Rosemary Seninde, NRM’s director for Mobilisation, Training and Cadre Development. Minister of State for Fisheries Hellen Adoa, who is influential in Serere politics, kept away from Oucor’s campaigns and only showed up when Museveni came to campaign.
The fight between Tanga Odoi, the NRM’s electoral commission boss, and Mike Mukula, the party’s vice chairperson for eastern region, has taken centre stage ever since it became apparent that the NRM candidate was going to lose.
Vice President Jessica Alupo.
On one hand, Tanga Odoi accused NRM leaders in Teso of abandoning the party’s candidate and threatened disciplinary action.
“This election showed division with the NRM to the extent that the whole vice chairperson eastern [Mukula] didn’t come to receive the President because of A or B,” Odoi said.
On the other hand, Mukulu accused Tanga Odoi of saying what he termed as hogwash. “This is absolute nonsense,” Mukula said. “You don’t make unsubstantiated statements as a leader. You must think before you talk as a leader.”
Mukula’s absence in the Serere by-election was intriguing because in his endeavour to prove to the Opposition Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party that he is still the kingmaker of Teso politics, Mukula last year camped in Soroti East to see that Ariko wins.
Mukula attributed his no-show in Serere to a conflict of interest. “I didn’t want to deeply divide our voters in Serere and the fact that I’m deeply conflicted I opted not to get involved in the campaign,” Mukula explains, saying he had communicated to Museveni, and not to Tanga Odoi, who he said is below him.
Parliament’s position was clear when Thomas Tayebwa, the Deputy Speaker, asked Mukula during the burial of Okabe to bless Omoding.
Mukula, in turn, called on Oucor to step down for Omoding, a suggestion he rejected, leaving the rest astonished. Unlike other by-elections, choosing a candidate for Serere County proved complicated for NRM.
During the 2021 elections, it was Oucor who stood on the NRM ticket and was beaten by Okabe who proved to be popular. When the position became vacant, the party was presented with a headache since Oucor insisted on standing, yet Omoding was riding on his father’s popularity and his chances of winning were high.
Section 41 of the NRM constitution stipulates that the term of office for every elected member is five years, which favoured Oucor.
The NRM constitution says termination of an elected or appointed person will be considered if the said person ceased to be a member of NRM, in case of abuse of office, a conviction for an offence carrying a sentence of more than nine months, misconduct or misbehaviour, mismanagement, incompetence and physical or mental incapacity.
Despite the clear provisions of their constitution, NRM’s cadres in Serere insisted that the party should go against it and filed Omoding as their candidate.
“…much as they are cognisant of the legal provisions in the NRM constitution, the situation in Serere County requires mutual understanding,” said Stephen Otage, the NRM chairperson in Kateta Sub-county.
In a bid to sway Omoding’s supporters, during the campaigns, Oucor’s team said he would not walk away empty-handed.
“We are going to have a job for him soon,” Samuel Eyenga, a mobiliser from the NRM secretariat, said.
However, NRM has downplayed the loss in Teso, saying though Omoding is an independent, he is NRM-leaning who won’t cause them any headache.
“Serere is still an NRM stronghold. The first [Omoding] and second [Oucor] are both NRM. So, we have not lost anything,” Mukula says.
Though NRM feels strong in Teso where both Speaker and Vice President Jessica Alupo come from, conflict is not always far away.
When Ariko won in July last year, Mukula accused Alupo of “working in isolation in silos”.
“This is unfortunate, the members, the ministers were divided. She has caused such internal contradictions in Teso sub-region that you now have ministers who are loyal to her and others who are loyal to another camp. You have Members of Parliament who are working with her and others who are not working with her,” Mukula claimed.
Fight for Teso
Anyone who has had a look into the politics of Teso before and after the ruling NRM assumed the reins of power after waging a five-year guerrilla war against the government of Milton Obote and the Tito Okello-led military junta, will know that the unity that existed among Iteso has long fizzled out.
From 1987 to early 2000s, the rivalry between Col William Omaria and the late Ateker Ejalu, despite the two having served under Obote, threatened Teso’s unity.
Omaria was an army officer in Obote’s government while Ejalu served in various capacities, before both were absorbed into the NRM by Museveni in what seemed a reward in helping the NRM defeat the Uganda People’s Army rebels headed by the late Peter Otai and the late Max Omeda through the Teso peace commission.
However, after working with the NRM, they tore each other apart and that was the start of disunity in the Teso politics.
New dimension
A new dimension into that history is what is currently playing out between Team Anita Among (Speaker) and camp Jessica Alupo (Vice President) in their quest for supremacy in Teso.
Team Among, christened as MAO, is said to have Mukula, Peter Ogwang, the State minister for Sports, and a cohort of MPS who are afraid of identifying themselves with Vice President Alupo.
The Vice President’s team is said to have a few legislators, ministers and top army officers.
In the view of Dr Okodan Akwap of Kumi University, the Team Among vs Team Alupo rivalry, which came to the fore during the Soroti City East by-election last year, is irrelevant to Teso’s development.
“We don’t have a leader that is grounded like we had in the late Cuthbert Obwangor. It is not about providing leadership that the people of Teso would like to benefit from, we don’t have a leader who can pull people to his or her direction, all these leaders derive allegiance from the President,” Okodan says.
He adds that what happened in Serere is a clear signal that these people are not pulling in one direction.
“We are seeing an issue of a number two position, number three position not being relevant to the development of Teso, those people are developing their own political fortunes. That is why you find the Vice President is more interested in what happens in Katakwi [District]. Her effectiveness in Teso is as that of Woman MP, not Vice President,” Okodan says, adding that it is the same for Among, who he says is more interested in what is happening in Bukedea District.
Mr Benson Ekuwe, the executive director of Public Affairs Centre Uganda (PAC), says after the gains by the Among camp in Serere, scolds have been flying in the direction of the Vice President.
“It’s unfortunate that these fights are happening at a time we have high positions in government,” Mr Ekuwe says. “At the tail end of it, these fights will live to haunt Teso because we don’t stand to benefit from them, other than tear us a part.”
And he could be right. Katakwi, for instance, where both Alupo, and junior Sports minister Ogwang are constituency representatives, the two don’t attend the same functions.
Daniel Ediau Ewadu, a former lecturer at Soroti UCC, says all this signals that Teso was better off when it was under Opposition.
Ewadu, a former Soroti vice chairperson and FDC member, insists that despite having the Speaker and Vice President, the region has the worst roads and health centres without medicine.
“So we need no rocket science to understand that the duo are not pulling Teso to the desired position,” he says.
Pastor Santos Labeja, a political and civic activist in Teso, says despite the two politicians being strong NRM diehards, overall they are paper tigers in the cog of power.
When we sought comment from Alupo’s team, John Robert Ekongot, the former Katakwi LC5 chairperson who is now working in the Vice President’s Office, said he could not comment on the matter.
Similarly, Siporah Akol, the political assistant for Speaker Among, declined to comment on the matter, instead referring Sunday Monitor to Chris Obore, the director of communications at Parliament.
“The Speaker is the head of the Legislature whose primary purpose is to facilitate the Executive to which the Vice President belongs to deliver services to the people,” Obore explains, adding that the Executive has not raised complaints.
Speaker Anita Among. PHOTO/ DAVID LUBOWA
Obore adds that if it is about Teso politics, then it’s better to be sure that the alleged rift is not the handiwork of political speculators who derive satisfaction from trading lies and disinformation.
“Trading lies in order to mess up leaders is now an industry for some political hangers on, but it should be discouraged because Teso is witnessing positive trends in national politics,” he says, adding that the Speaker’s focus is to lead the House to the expectations of the country, and not to pay attention to imagined political squabbles.
