By Otim Nape
The mood among key NUP campaign strategists at Kavule is one of anger and disappointment-and this has to do with embattled UPC President Jimmy Akena. The big men inside NUP are hurting over the fact that, by signaling he was solidly with him and would deliver Lango’s roughly 2m votes to him, the NUP Presidential Candidate went out of his way to reciprocate and celebrate his newly-found political alliance with Jimmy Akena.
It turns out that the outgoing Lira City East MP (who is also son to twice Uganda’s President Milton Obote) hasn’t made any efforts to ensure that the angry Lango voters, furious that the Museveni government blocked their Akena, will be voting for Robert Kyagulanyi Sentamu come 15th January.
Instead of being unequivocal in favour of Kyagulanyi, whenever voters in Lango have asked for guidance on who they should vote for President come 15th January, Akena has been vague and ambivalent.
Fearing to alienate himself from thousands of elderly congressmen and women throughout the Lango districts (who are uncomfortable with Bobi Wine), Akena has been reluctant to openly campaign for Kyagulanyi anywhere on a public rally.
He hasn’t been hostile to him though and has refused to accept any responsibility that would require him do the overall coordination for Kyagulanyi’s protest vote in Lango. When Kyagulanyi was in Lango, Akena didn’t do much to demonstrate solidarity with him beyond mere hosting him at his home and allowing him access to Obote’s grave.
He never attended any public rally with him. Not even in his Lira City constituency. This infuriated many inside Kavule because sharing a campaigning platform would greatly have boosted Kyagulanyi.
Poor man, Kyagulanyi used his public rally to de-campaign Museveni blue-eyed girl Jane Ruth Aceng for Lira City Woman MP job in the hope this would advantage Akena’s wife Betty Amongi. Doing this, he did but the anticipated political dividend never resulted.
Kavule’s anger and frustration multiplied a few days ago when Akena was pressed hard to indicate who Lango voters should vote for Presidency. He said they can vote any of the other seven candidates for as long as its not Museveni.
This ambivalence has greatly dispirited strategists at Kavule who initially believed that Akena would deliver Lango’s 2m votes, only for recent opinion polls to indicate Museveni still has the upper hand and is going to retain Lango.
Insiders at Kyadondo are optimistic that Akena’s hostility to Museveni is going to be neutralized on the morning after 15th January when it will appear very clearly that the ruling party candidate has retained Lango.
Akena says that those who feel they can’t like any of the candidates who say they are for opposition, including Kyagulanyi, they can just protest and demonstrate their anger by deliberately spoiling their vote by writing his name “Jimmy Akena” on the ballot paper. This has pushed NUP strategists at Kavule to confirm that Akena isn’t someone they can do political business with.
“It was all kiwaani because imagine Bobi risked the Baganda wrath by going to Obote’s grave in the hope that would galvanize Akena’s support and get for us those 2m votes come 15th January. But we now realize that’s not going to ever happen because of Akena’s treachery,” says a Kavule insider. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
