UPC President Jimmy Akena, who says he is ready to die, will need divine intervention to escape what is coming his way in the next few days, weeks and months.
It’s increasingly becoming clear that the PLU top leadership recently meant business when they sent out David Kabanda to publicly declare that Gen MK was interested in buying off UPC and it becomes his party, the way Bobi Wine bought off Mzee Moses Kibalama’s NURP party in 2020.
At a hastily-convened news conference at PLU offices in Nakasero, Hon Michael Mawanda who serves as the head mobilization, revealed that they have been instructed (he didn’t reveal by who) to quickly make the neccessary arrangements to ensure that Dennis Adim Enap, a former PA to Akena, is aided, supported and enabled to assume office at Uganda House.
Flanked by a group of UPC officials who are loyal to the Enap faction, Mawanda said as far as they know Akena (who has lately been very outspoken against Gen MK) has never been the legitimate President of UPC and time has come for him to be ousted in favor of Enap who was present at the Wednesday media event at PLU offices.
Mawanda said that PLU is a civic organization whose top leadership is always prepared to support and facilitate the legitimate leaders of political parties to take their rightful places.
He said Enap is the legitimate UPC President under the laws of Uganda and the UPC Constitution and that PLU is ready to make sure that he has unlimited access to Uganda House and safely takes over office as the rightful President of UPC.
Enap explained that the UPC he leads is desirous to have a very good relationship with PLU under the leadership of Gen MK. He explained that he became entitled to the UPC top seat after emerging unopposed in party elections which followed the expiry of Akena’s second term in 2025.
Akena, who Kabanda says has always had support of some powerful people in the government which enabled him impose himself on the UPCs for all these years, first became the UPC President in 2015 after organizing a successful coup against Olara Otunnu.
Enap says the Party Constitution as of 2025 had term limits whereby Akena wouldn’t go beyond 2026. Having become President in 2015, the year 2026 marked Akena’s 10 years in office.
Its against that background that Court held that Akena hadn’t been validly nominated to become UPC President for a 3rd term beyond 2026.
The invalidation of his nomination is how Enap (who was his only challenger) became unopposed.
And its against this background that the PLUs consider him to be the legitimate UPC President whose inauguration Akena has been frustrating using his friends, allies and backers in the system, as Kabanda indicated.
Enap (who is a practicing lawyer in private practice) explained at the PLU media event on Wednesday that he remains the UPC President up to this day. He said going forward, he will be convnening a UPC delegates conference in Kampala on 26th July during which more than 1,400 party delegates will pronounce themselves against Akena.
It’s very likely that the resolutions from the Enap delegates conference will escalate things and provide room or an opening for the PLU leadership to come in more directly. Enap also praised the PLU leadership over its willingness to help in causing the release of UPC political prisoners who continue to languish in prison simply because they stood up and opposed Akena’s leadership. He claimed there are many such congressmen and women whose families are so angry at Akena.
Its predictable that the pro-Enap delegates will denounce Akena and reject the circumstances under which he and his supporters purported to ammend the UPC Constitution to scrap term limits to enable him remain Party President in perpetuity.
The Akena group, whose intended Presidential Candidate was rejected by EC over similar concerns, purported to ammend the UPC Constitution only after the Court had pronounced itself on the unlawfulness of his reelection for 3rd term and declared him ineligible. And this amounts to retrospective legislation, which the Constitution of Uganda prohibits.
The Enaps may not be angels but Akena doesn’t have that much high moral ground to push back against them because of the circumstances through which he became the UPC President and kept himself in power for all those years (2016-2026).
Allegations of Akena disregarding Court orders have over the years been made by all manner of people and critics such as Josegh Ochieno, senior lawyer Peter Walubiri and others.
This PLU-Enap preparation aimed at crippling Dr. Milton Obote’s son are gaining momentum at a time when Gen Salim Saleh, the Akena faction ally of many years, refused to get involved in the current public quarreling between Gen MK on one hand and Jimmy Akena on the other.
Having gotten hurt over the many nasty things that the embattled UPC President has been saying about him, Gen Museveni is unlikely to come to his long time ally Jimmy Akena’s rescue this time round.
Museveni is also unhappy that of all people Akena, who he has always materially supported since his 2005 return from the Zambian exile without much to sustain himself, would insist on running for Presidency in 2026 simply because he wanted to galvanize Lango sub region’s roughly 3m votes to himself, in order to deny the NRM national chairman the mandatory 51% which he required to be declared the winner. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
