Author: Karoli Ssemogerere. PHOTO/FILE
Life in Lira is businesslike. The market is very busy, one of the few success stories. More people live in Lira City than in any other urban area in northern Uganda with the exception of West Nile. When court is gaveled to business at the High Court, there are two languages used here; English and Langi, the local language. And yes for the legal nuts, there is a translation for miscellaneous cause, taxation application or whatever word you have it.
The prominent case of the day is the ongoing challenge to the enthronement of the Won Nyac, the Traditional Leader, Dr. Michael Odongo, former chief executive, Uganda Road Fund. I send my regards to him, through his Prime Minister and his lawyer, my old law school classmate Quirinus Oyugi, now 65, who after leaving the Uganda Police Force went on to become a legal mind in what is now Lira City. I am really enjoying it, files being called, in a master calendar hearing, one by one, no drama, as the Resident Judge is away in a session of the International Criminal Division so all his cases have to be postponed to another date.
It’s now been 15 years since I last visited Lira, as a UCDA consultant. We were in the early stages of introducing coffee in Northern Uganda. In Northern Uganda, the soils are virgin, rains are high, with just one minor problem, a long spell of hot and dry weather. All sorts of cash crops now thrive here especially with irrigation.
Lango produces everything, maize, groundnuts, millet, vegetables and rice. There is some liquidity in the economy. All commercial banks are competing for space, in their tiny Wall Street, Stanbic, Post Bank, KCB, Housing Finance Bank, Centenary Bank serviced by a Bank of Uganda currency center. According to my opponent in court for the day, Lango is the real center of northern Uganda having held “real power” not “apparent power” identified with Gulu that emotionally has attracted more government business. The resurfacing of the Corner Kamdini-Lira-Dokolo-Soroti highway is a selfish method by the government to collect more revenue. Don’t take the president’s cries that there is a lot of money in Uganda outside the tax system lightly. URA has an interesting office location, on the top floor of a private building in the “Wall Street” area of Lira.
In many offices in Lira, the official portrait of the President hangs side by side with the portrait of the former twice elected President Apollo Milton Obote. In the 2021-2025, parliamentary term, UPC has been in the enviable position of winning two by-elections, one from NRM in Oyam North, which is now an all UPC parliamentary delegation and further east in Dokolo where they harvested the Woman MP’s seat from FDC.
I have fond memories of Lira, one of the 10 districts that voted for my late father to be the last “man” in the 1996 elections. Weary of war, that had destroyed their homestead and lifestyles, the people are now settled. When I met Judge Margaret Apiny for the first time, as the Secretary Law Council, she repeated what the late Hon. Cecilia Ogwal’s mother used to call my father, apparently, they could not pronounce the “sharp” “S”, so they settled for calling him Namogerere, or Chemogerere. I count myself lucky that I did chat with Cecilia Ogwal one last time when she was in good health in June last year at Munyonyo where I made a presentation on her famous political partner’s topic, proportional representation. Mrs. Ogwal, the region’s favorite daughter, is still very present in Lira Municipality. A big commercial building again on Wall Street to her name completed just before she died.
Something sparked my innocence again, what would Lango be, if more powers were devolved from the centre to the regions. A regional airport, a world ranked university, the possibilities are many. Someone would even come to replant the avenues with eucalyptus trees that stood tall in the city before they were ignorantly cut down. Lango has an engine that can run on its own !
Mr Ssemogerere is an Attorney-At-Law and an Advocate. [email protected]
