By Mulengera Reporter
During a recent appearance on a radio talk show in Lira City, Aruu County MP Emeritus Odonga Otto made utterances which depicted the extent to which he wasn’t being truthful about the clout that comes with Jane Ruth Aceng being made the new Government Chief Whip in Parliament.
Otto, who served four terms in Parliament (2001-2021), purported to be concerned about Aceng’s political demotion, as he termed it. To him, being transferred from Health where she had done wonders serving as Minister for 10 years (2016-2026), amounted to Aceng being undermined instead of being elevated. He praised her as a good leader who had made Uganda, Africa and humanity proud over the meticulousness with which she spearheaded and epitomized the country’s response to the COVID pandemic.
However, Odonga Otto’s analysis had glaring inaccuracies which require rectification. Firstly, Aceng’s transfer was well deserved because having served at health ministry for a combined period of 16 straight years, including the five as the Director General Medical Services (2011-2016), there was need to be redeployed elsewhere.
In the 16 years, she had seen and done it all at the Wandegeya-based Ministry, making her transfer timely and well deserved. It would be imprudent for a political leader to do 20 years at one same Ministry. In fact, in Museveni’s Uganda, that, gratefully, never happens. Being the public management scholar and political pundit he these days prefers to be addressed as, this is something Odonga Otto ought to have reflected upon.
His claimed demotion must have been a calculated move by Odonga Otto, a veteran opposition figure, to drive a wedge between Gen Museveni’s NRM and Dr. Aceng’s Langi co-ethnics. Otherwise, as someone who served at Parliament for 20 straight years, the former Aruu County MP ought to know how powerful and how consequential the office of GCW has become in contemporary Uganda.
Because of the importance he attaches onto Parliament, the GCW is one political leader President Museveni calls or rings more frequently than any other. Being a guerrilla, Museveni doesn’t take such an institution (which at least in theory has so much power to the extent they can even impeach him or any other executive member) lightly. He wants to know which NRM MP is lately becoming disgruntled and for what reason. Or even which opposition MP is exhausted, cracking and wants to make a deal with State House.
He uses the GCW to collect a lot of intelligence on individual MPs including knowing who is getting married and who is ill and therefore in need of urgent rescue to cope with say a terminal condition that has just been diagnosed. Museveni is so detailed to the extent, he would value even intel on which noisy MP is neglecting to look after his mistress or illegitimate children born out of the wedlock.
Especially at the beginning of Parliament, MPs have functions in their constituencies which Museveni is no longer able to attend regularly and personally. He renders financial support which has to be coordinated through the office of GCW. The same GCW also automatically serves as the Chairperson for the NRM caucus, which in the 12th Parliament is home to 372 MPs, excluding affiliated independents. The GCW serves with a full executive of other members.
The same office is created by law and has a budget of several billions though the bearer isn’t obliged to appear anywhere say before PAC or COSASE to respond to any audit queries. This is something every other Museveni appointee would like to have the privilege to enjoy. The GCW is of even greater consequence because that office has to support the Prime Minister to ensure the other role of being leader of government business is effectively executed. It’s an important office, which is why there is only one Government Chief Whip. Not two, not even a Deputy.
For Aceng, it’s an opportunity to be mentored even more on the role of political mobilization because she has to whip all the MPs under the NRM caucus to make sure that her master’s legislative agenda is prioritized and delivered upon both in plenary sessions and at committee stage. The role also makes her a key stakeholder whose views can never be disregarded by the Parliamentary Commission because she leads and represents the biggest caucus which controls over 70% of the legislators in Parliament.
Over the years, a practice has evolved under President Museveni so that whoever serves as GCW sits in Cabinet and also has a slot in CEC, which is the topmost organ of the ruling party. As health Minister, Aceng had no room to sit and participate in CEC meetings where a lot of key decision making takes place regarding the direction of NRM and by extension the country too.
All this heightened exposure, and opportunity to be mentored, is happening at a time Aceng is going places inside the universe of Gen MK, the President’s son who is also the CDF and Gen Museveni’s co-President, according to some. There are growing indicators that Gen MK is Uganda’s next President. Many think he could even ascend the Presidency before 2031 dawns. Gen MK is being prepared under something called PLU where Aceng ranks among the top 15 top officials.
Besides sitting on the MK Fund, whose membership comprises of the most privileged and valued cadres, Aceng was also two days ago named to PLU’s Central Executive Committee. Being clearly in the good books of both Gen Museveni and MK means Jane Ruth Aceng is a giant whose political stardom can only rise.
She is now seen as the key power broker for her native sub region of Lango where she led the onslaught on the UPC whose First Lady Betty Amongi she decisively ‘disciplined’ at the Thursday 15th January 2026 polls during which she tried and failed to become the Lira City Woman MP. Aceng is also in very good books of Janet Museveni, who is the President’s wife.
As the experience of Justine Kasule Lumumba and Thomas Tayebwa showed, Gen Museveni can sometimes use the GCW to prepare cadres for even bigger things in the near future. From being GCW, Kasule Lumumba was made NRM Secretary General yet for Thomas Tayebwa, the same assignment preceded his elevation to the position of Deputy Speaker. (For comments on this story, get back to us on 0705579994 [WhatsApp line], 0779411734 & 041 4674611 or email us at mulengeranews@gmail.com).
