UPC ‘totally’ sweeps Oyam MP seats

In earlier years, Oyam provided a steady supply of UPC politicians who were elected to Parliament. Chris Ayena Odongo a former EALA member who crossed to NRM in the by-elections, Dr Yafesi Okullo Epak, Mr Ben Wacha, and others.

Oyam is the district closest to the main Gulu highway. Travellers to Gulu pass through Oyam District before entering Gulu District a few kilometers from Corner Kamdini.

The President was gracious in defeat. UPC does not have a formal pact with NRM but the coziness is public. Criticising the lopsided Bukedea LC V by-election result where NRM rode to victory with 91 percent of the vote, the kinds of margins associated with one-party states, the President called for blood. And indeed, he drew first blood.

The high-handedness of state functionaries in recent by-elections has been on full display, for example in Soroti City West, where the opposition FDC lost a seat; or the Kayunga LC V By-election where the opposition NUP lost the chair. In Bukedea, he swore off tactics, like ballot paper stuffing, intimidation of candidates, illegal arrests, and seizure of Shs163 million associated with one candidate.

It is interesting that no allegations of money laundering were made against the FDC candidate, probably speaking to the politics of infestation where NRM and the Opposition chide each other during daytime and work together at night.  By the time the ink dried on the presidential directive, the RDC, his own representative in the district, the DPC, and others were all in court facing different offences.

UPC’s victory, while it does not change anything in the current politics, is a useful reminder that the principle of open competition which all political players in Uganda have trouble accepting is essential for good governance.

The outsize advantage NRM enjoys in Parliament and through all levers of political power has worked against accountability and good governance many times. Locked out of government in perpetuity, opposition political parties are denied a platform to present and defend alternatives in public. Anger, resentment, and frustration quickly follow in quick order. Elected officials find themselves on the receiving end of the machines at the top of politics.

Maybe, the President in Bukedea was immunising himself against a machine, maybe he feels the machine politics is taking root and undermining his own authority.
When the Director for Public Prosecutions (DPP) sought charges against cabinet ministers, she was immediately gifted with motor vehicles, pay-relief from taxes, etc. Unless they are kept as sacrificial lambs, the charges against the two Karamoja ministers may quickly dissolve.

Eager to speak to the electorate, politicians keep on finding barriers. There are no policies to defend or sell to the public except those by the government.
In the 1960s, after the constitutional coup d’état, the remaining members of the opposition in Parliament one, by one, folded their hands and walked to the government side, until there were just two Democratic Party members of Parliament.
Kabaka Yekka members realised the magnitude of their mistake when they joined a coalition in 1962 where they did not push the buttons.

In the 1981-1985 Parliament, members crossed but not a single one was appointed to Cabinet. In the current dispensation of individual merit, political parties function but in a very limited way. The President negotiates individually with everyone. He may be trying to get out of some of these negotiations, loosening machines, which are political parties without headquarters.

So, he too, may have been relieved, that the week of glory, went to UPC, whose party flag is still flying high at Uganda House. 
 Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]