By Mulengera Reporters
A war has erupted, and kept escalating, between the leadership of LUMBA association which unites Boda-Boda riders in Lira City and other parts of Lango sub region on one hand and Kyoga North Police territory Regional Traffic Officer Patrick Lumumba Okwir on the other.
Led by their founding Chairman Moses Okori, thousands of LUMBA riders have ganged up to resist Okwir who they say has actively been working towards weakening and spliting up their association by inciting emergency of a splinter group led by Lira City West’s Juma Owera and Lira East’s Sam Odongo who generally is a new actor in the Boda-Boda industry having previously excelled as a matooke seller in the market.
Okwir has vigorously defended himself saying Okori just doesn’t like the accountability questions the duo has been leading other boda riders to raise. That the LUMBA big man has merely been required to account for the money the President contributed. Okwir has denied claims made against him including those indicating that he has become a political mobiliser for one of the camps eyeing the Lira City Woman MP position come 2026.
At an earlier news conference in Lira City, Okori branded Okwir a destabilising force asserting that until he got involved in their issues, the Lira Boda-Boda industry was peaceful and united. He accused Okwir of deliberately working towards weakening LUMBA because it has clearly distinguished itself as a stumbling block to the political ambitions of one of the opposition contenders who wants to oust Lira City pioneer Woman MP Jane Ruth Aceng come 2026.
LUMBA members have been the vanguards of Aceng reelection in 2026. And Okori says that because Okwir is hostile to Aceng’s reelection, he is deliberately working towards frustrating LUMBA in order to diminish the Minister’s reelection chances. This Thursday evening, Okori has once again spoken to the media and reveled that he has already petitioned the IGP and Director Traffic in the Uganda Police in Kampala demanding removal of Okwir whom he says has become politically partisan and is actively working towards destabilizing Lira City as opposed to deescalating and calming down things.
Interestingly, Okwir is a Labwor by tribe and hails from Abim district which is at the border of Lango and Karamoja sub regions. He has been RTO Kyoga for the last 3 years and hundreds of Okori’s adherents are already perceiving him as a trouble-causer who deserves to be transfered to somewhere else. Things further escalated when Okwir addressed the media too and vowed to use his position to cause the arrest of Moses Okori for criticizing his modus operandi as CTO.
Whereas Okwir maintains all he has done is aimed at securing the larger public interest, Okori predicts that his continued stay in office will only breed more chaos because there is no way thousands of Lira riders who subscribe to LUMBA are going to ever accept his leadership over all traffic operations in the Kyoga region. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [whatsapp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).