On his home turf, Amuriat takes on Museveni for votes in Teso region

Amuriat is riding on his political activism that dates back to 1994. It is no surprise that many NRM bigwigs in Teso, such as vice chairperson for eastern region Mike Mukula, Usuk County MP Peter Ogwang, NRM candidate for Kanyum County Simon Opolot and Ngora Woman MP Jacqueline Amongin, are being accused by locals of trying to bring down Amuriat’s candidature.

Mr Mukula, who is said to be at the centre of fighting Amuriat’s possible gains in Teso, has himself had a fair share of reprisal attacks from locals.

While distributing NRM bicycles in Bukedea District, party chairpersons boldly told him that the bicycles were not a guarantee that they would vote Museveni.

Mr Mukula, who Amuriat stood shoulder to shoulder with during his GAVI funds trial in 2012, claims Amuriat will pose no threat to NRM in Teso.

“All his FDC members from Teso are not for his candidature,” he says.
But Kanyum County MP Ismael Orot on November 22 told President Museveni at Kumi Boma Grounds that Amuriat should not be underestimated because he is a tested politician with vast experience.

He added that besides being a son of the soil, Amuriat has mobilisation skills and is rich with knowledge about the history of the country.

Countering Amuriat
Former legislator of Usuk County in Katakwi District, Isaiah Imumet, says top NRM legislators in Teso are clueless on how to check Amuriat to enable Mr Museveni get reasonable votes in Teso.

“Those trying to stab Amuriat are afraid their payslips from government may not be the same after this election. The resolve across the political divide is tending towards Amuriat, I don’t know how it is elsewhere. Those attacking the people’s resolve on radio are wasting time,” Imumet told Sunday Monitor.

Imumet says President Museveni has made several pledges to the region, which many voters feel have been unfulfilled.

It was, therefore, not a surprise that when Amuriat went to Teso to launch his campaigns on November 14 there was heavy deployment of security personnel that engaged his supporters in running battles, a situation Amuriat squarely blames on NRM’s top strategists.
Like in other areas, Amuriat says his radio talk shows were blocked by junior ICT minister Peter Ogwang, accusations Mr Ogwang says are not true.

A source within the NRM who attended President Museveni’s meetings during his campaign visit to Teso on November 20 to 23 told this newspaper that NRM cadres from Teso requested Shs7b to reportedly neutralise Amuriat, but the President allegedly scoffed at the request.

“We have substantial achievements to guarantee us victory against Amuriat,” the President is quoted to have responded to the request. But he promised Shs50b for Teso compensation.

Blamed
Though the Shs7b was first discussed among NRM cadres before being tabled before the President, Ngora Woman MP Jacqueline Amongin, who is running a tight race against FDC’s Stella Isodo, has been thrown under the bus.

Solomon Okilan, an NRM supporter in Kaler, Mukura Sub-county, says Amongin has been turned into a sacrificial lamb on a matter that NRM cadres in Teso had agreed on.

An NRM executive leader from Ngora District, who spoke on condition of anonymity, revealed that the idea was mooted at Soroti Hotel and concretised at Timisha hotel, meetings he says were attended by most of the NRM bigwigs in Teso.

“Jacqueline Amongin has been left isolated, but we shall prevail over this. Slowly the public will get to know the truth about Shs7b request,” he adds.

FDC fortunes
Soroti District NRM chairperson Charles Elasu says Amuriat will not score a popular vote in Teso because FDC support “has dwindled over the years.”

Elasu says although FDC used to have a strong base in Teso, it has been losing out to NRM in the recent past.

His justifications are that in the 2006 general elections, FDC swept 16 parliamentary seats in Teso, but dropped to six in 2011 and only three in 2016.

But Ogwang says President Museveni has outperformed all other former presidents.

“We have scored a lot in areas of infrastructure. Operation Wealth Creation has made strides in agriculture. In the field of education, we have regional public universities to show, and all this were President Museveni’s pledges which he has fulfilled,” Ogwang says.

However, Paul Omer, the Soroti City mayor and FDC mobiliser for Teso and greater Karamoja region, says machinations by the State against the Opposition will be answered by the aggrieved people on January 14.

“Voters are not stupid. They are watching and internalising all the dirty games they [NRM] are playing. We are reaching out to the people using means within our reach, demystifying the recurring lies of compensation,” Omer says.

Omer adds that another president will compensate the Iteso, saying Mr Museveni only uses compensation as a campaign tool.
“We were never beggars. Iteso were a proud tribe who had the spine to educate their children, but all that was broken by NRA, now turned NRM,” the Soroti City mayor says.

“After breaking the economic spine in Teso, they are now even taking away land people from people in Malera in Bukedea, Okore, Palam, Angisa, Guyaguya in Katakwi under the watch of Museveni’s government.”

George William Okoit, the National Unity Platform (NUP) coordinator Teso chapter, says it is inconceivable that NRM can claim to still command any substantial support in Uganda when people are feeling the wrath of its alleged injustice; when people can’t pay fees and find jobs, and when the only remaining piece of hope vested in land is being taken away.

“You see everywhere the NUP candidate goes, or other Opposition candidates, he is baptism of teargas, live bullets, we are being denied space while the NRM small god is lavishly enjoying the benefits of security as children yearning for change are shot,” Okoit says, adding that the elections will be won by the majority will of the people.

Okoit says NUP has good presence in the urban and rural areas, “and this is testimony that people are feeling the choke of NRM which has impoverished Ugandans in the last 35 years.”

Stephen Okello, an NUP mobiliser in Kalaki District, accuses the NRM government of harassing and intimidating people yearning for change, saying NRM has lost the love and support of the people.

“They preach democracy using the left hand and use the right hand to torture us. Some of us are afraid of sleeping at home,” Okello says.

History of struggle
Okodan Akwap, the deputy vice chancellor for academic affairs at Kumi University, says the potential in Amuriat was first revealed in the excitement that followed his victory as FDC party president over Mugisha Muntu, who  has since then broken ranks with the party to form the Alliance for National Transformation (ANT).

Akwap says Teso has a long history of struggle for Uganda’s independence and development. He says people like Ben Okwerede, and Stephen Abwongoto were involved in formation of Uganda National Congress as early as 1952, and later with the formation of UPC, an offspring of UNC.

“Iteso were a bedrock of the affairs of this country with brains like late [former ministers] Cuthbert Obwangor, David Anyoti and Peter Otai being in heart of earlier governments,” he says.

But the poverty currently being faced by many in the sub-region represent a complex situation for President Museveni, which he says the NRM leader will try to solve by making unrealistic pledges.
“Museveni has dangled Shs50b for execution of restocking, call it compensation. You know he will not mean that, he will come up with all flimsy excuses,” he says.

“Since insurgency, the culture of dependency has risen. People are clamouring for gifts, people are now accustomed to ‘free ridders’, something elders of yesteryears wouldn’t clamour for,” Akwap adds.

By so doing, he says, voters are falling in the hands of Museveni, adding that Amuriat needed a thoughtful plan on how Teso would get out of poverty, for example, by using the demographic dividends on how to utilise the youth to create wealth.

“Amuriat started late for 2021 elections, but he 
has started early for 2026. All he needs is to get off the shadow of Dr Kizza Besigye, and rather lay strategy of his own other than Besigye’s plans, and mysterious Plan B,” the Kumi University lecturer adds.

Akwap says the potential for Amuriat in Teso is there, but it is not good enough. “You have to turn it into real earnings, turn it into competitive advantage. There is goodwill, and in my errands I hear even among NRM supporters moving out to support their homeboy in the ballot box.”

“That aside, there is no level playground for politicians from the Opposition. No fairness from security, no justice from Judiciary, which amounts to a foregone conclusion of the presidential race,” he says.

Going by Okodan Akwap’s assertion, it remains to be seen as to whether the electorate – who according to the data from the Electoral Commission voted for President Museveni in 2011 and 2016 –will this time round side with the Opposition.

Teso leaders’  demands
Teso leaders recently asked President Museveni to compensate them for animals and human lives lost during the Karimojong cattle rustling and insurgencies in the sub-region.
 
They want him to deliver the compensation before the end of his current term in May next year.

“Address expeditiously, the compensation of the people of Teso for the cattle, property and lives lost during the insurgency and cattle rustling, as per your presidential pledge and directive in 2011,” a memorandum presented to Mr Museveni reads in part.

Being cattle keepers, the people of Teso are demanding the revival of the animal breeding centre that was closed and moved to Tororo before being relocated to Lango.

They also demanded de-silting and expansion of 139 valley dams to facilitate fish farming and water harvesting and avoid grazing in waterlogged land.

They further demanded rehabilitation of five major roads in Mr Museveni’s next term and expansion of security roads on the Karamoja-Teso boundary to help prevent cattle rustling.

With the Soroti Fruit Factory up and running, there is a need to expand its capacity to absorb fruits from the neighbouring areas and also help farmers improve their produce.