By Mulengera Reporters
When he addressed reporters at a specially-convened news conference on Saturday at Uganda House, party President Jimmy Akena was in a combative mood though at some moments he sounded emotionally broken. See full news conference in this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hl4j3ru_V-8&t=12s.
He told reporters that the latest High Court ruling, declaring him ineligible to seek reelection as party President (in order to comply with term limits in the party Constitution), was targeted at constraining and preventing him from challenging Gen YK Museveni in the 2026 elections.
He said that his ongoing mobilization had ignited a lot of momentum for change in Lango and elsewhere and this is why the Museveni regime is nervous and panicking.
Akena threw through barbs at his opponents from within the UPC party including Peter Walubiri, Joseph Ochieno and Denis Enap. He refused to rule out of some of these being proxies the regime has recruited and intends to use to disrupt the political momentum he has instigated in Lango in favor of regime change.
Akena also controversially bragged that the High Court ruling had contradicted the earlier one by the Supreme Court which his critics have all along been saying invalidated his Presidency. He thanked the High Court judge for setting the record straight namely that he is validly the sitting UPC President.
Going forward, the former Ugandan first son, by virtue of being founding President Milton Obote, asserted that he was using his mandate as Party President to convene a special party delegates conference on 26th July at Northern Gate Way Hotel which is situated in Kamdin Oyam district where his wife Betty Amongi hails from.
He said the party belongs to the delegates to whom he will be articulating the latest dilemma about what he called the ruling regime’s determination to “strip” him of his “UPC uniform” in the false hope that this will neutralize the momentum his mobilization activities have created. Akena vowed to put such plotters to shame by remaining focused on qualitatively challenging Gen Museveni in the ballot box in 2026 regardless of whether he remains UPC President or not.
But reading between the lines, it’s not hard to establish the political dividend Akena anticipates to reap from the Kamdin meeting.
Here is what the final outcome will look like. The UPCs will be voting to scrap term limits in their party Constitution so that Jimmy Akena, their star player and top scorer in the current circumstances, can remain eligible to lead what remains of Milton Obote’s party going into 2026.
The moral argument is easy to make- namely that Uganda no longer has such limitations in its national Constitution which is the Supreme Law of the land.
Akena made clear at the Saturday news conference that, having done 20 years (2006-2026) as Lira City/Municipality MP, Presidency is the natural thing for him to go for next. His dad Obote twice stood and won the Presidency of Uganda and his mum Miria Kalule Obote tried it too in 2006 but trailed badly behind Gen YK Museveni, Kiiza Besigye and Sebaana Kizito.
Akena also advised adversaries like Enap, Walubiri and Ochieno to travel to Kamdin on 26th July and make their case to the delegates and find out how many of them agree with their claim that he hasn’t added any value to UPC.
Akena also asserted that there is nothing mischievous about holding the delegates conference in Kamdin because even parties like DP have been holding theirs in different parts of the country and not just Kampala. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
