WHERE’S HE? Supporters wave Obote posters as they wait for his address

By James Oloch and
Patrick Okino in Lira
THE Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) holds grassroots elections on September 17, starting in Lango sub-region, a top UPC chief said on Saturday.

Constitutional steering committee secretary general Peter Walubiri Mukibi told a rally at the Coronation Park in Lira Municipality that elections would begin in Lira, Apac and Amolatar.

He said executive members would be elected ahead of a delegates’ conference next month that will pick the candidate for next year’s presidential elections.

Hundreds of supporters, chanting UPC slogans and carrying portraits of UPC party president Apollo Milton Obote, turned up for the rally expecting Obote to address them on telephone. Obote is in exile in Zambia.

By noon, the park had been filled up but several attempts to connect Lira to Lusaka failed.

Obote only managed to say: “Kanyakino wunu, obanga akonyo wu (Luo for continue to struggle; God will help you),” before the line went off.
The supporters kept around till 6:30pm.

It would have been Obote’s first public address since he fled into exile in 1985 after a coup de tat.

“If we knew that the president (Obote) would not address us, we would not have come,” a bitter supporter said.

Walubiri said UPC was ready to capture power next year for the third time.
Ends