UPC's Akena defends hosting NUP leader Kyagulanyi, calls for honest politics

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Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) President Jimmy Akena has defended his recent meeting with National Unity Platform (NUP) leader Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, aka Bobi Wine. Akena says the encounter was guided by national interest and the spirit of unity, not political manoeuvring as some critics have claimed.

Speaking to the media at UPC headquarters at Uganda House in Kampala on October 29, 2025, Akena said the meeting with Kyagulanyi at his home in Akokoro, Apac district, was purely about dialogue and national healing. The UPC leader revealed that while at his ancestral home, Kyagulanyi also took time to lay a wreath on the grave of Akena’s late father and former president of Uganda, Dr Apollo Milton Obote, a gesture he described as “deeply symbolic.”

“Today, because of recent events, the president of the National Unity Platform honoured an invitation to come and visit me in Akokoro. While there, he also took the opportunity to lay a wreath on my father’s grave,” Akena said.

“But I’ve seen many comments on social media and in public discussions. So, I think it’s important that I pronounce myself clearly on this.”

Akena dismissed as “reactionary and misplaced” the backlash that followed his meeting with the Opposition leader, saying Ugandans must move past emotional politics and focus on the future of the country.

“Leadership should not be about echoing emotion; it should be about steadying the nation. The test of leadership is not how loudly we respond, but how faithfully we continue to serve,” Akena said.

Obote's enduring legacy

He added that Obote's enduring legacy should not be reduced to political arguments but remembered for the tangible institutions that transformed Ugandans’ lives, such as Nakaseke, Kiboga, Kayunga, Kawolo and Gomba hospitals, which he said continue to serve generations to this day.

“My father’s legacy in Buganda is not in the arguments of the past, it is in the hospitals, the schools and the institutions that continue to serve the people,” he said.

In what appeared to be a subtle response to critics from Buganda who still associate UPC with the 1966 crisis, Akena appealed for a more balanced view of history. He reminded Ugandans that long before the post-independence tensions, there was a deep bond between the Lango and Buganda kingdoms, citing his own family’s role in protecting Buganda’s monarchy during the colonial wars.

“When the two kings, Kabaka Mwanga and Omukama Kabalega, were running from Kakungulu and the British, they landed in the hands of Obote’s grandfather. He received them and guided them to Lango, where they were defended for four years. That’s the history people forget," Akena said.

He noted that while some choose to view Obote’s legacy only through the lens of the 1966 Buganda crisis, others, like himself, choose to celebrate the visionary leadership that transformed Uganda’s education, health, and cooperative sectors in the 1960s.

“If I talk about health services in Uganda, there is no better record than under Milton Obote in the late 60s,” he said.

“Hospitals were built, staff were well catered for, education expanded massively, and farmers thrived through cooperatives. Uganda was thriving, that is the Obote legacy I ride on.”

A call for honest leadership and a national conversation

Akena also used the briefing to challenge Uganda’s current political leaders to engage in honest and constructive dialogue about the nation’s future, not propaganda and personality clashes.

“For me, the basis of Akokoro was to have an honest conversation about where our country is going. I have demonstrated honesty in sitting with leaders across political lines, Museveni, Cohen, Kyagulanyi, because I believe Uganda is bigger than all of us,” he said.

He noted that despite personal tragedies, including the killing of his grandfather in 1987 during cattle raids, he has never allowed bitterness to stand in the way of peacebuilding.

“It has not stopped me from sitting on the table to discuss the future of Uganda. If I can sit with Museveni, I can sit with Kyagulanyi. That’s leadership,” he noted.

He criticised the Government’s handling of issues affecting northern and eastern Uganda, particularly the failure to compensate families for lost cattle, saying such neglect shows a lack of planning and honesty.

“For over 20 years, people have lived in camps. Every family lost cattle, their livelihood, their bank, their survival,” he said.

“Now you say you will compensate five animals per household. Where is the plan? Where is the budget? You are not being honest.”

Akena vows to be on the ballot “by all means”

Akena reiterated that he remains determined to contest in the 2026 general election, despite what he described as deliberate efforts by some actors to keep him off the ballot.

The Electoral Commission (EC) last month blocked Akena’s nomination as UPC’s presidential flag-bearer for the 2026 General Election.

According to the EC, Akena’s election as party president was illegal, null and void, citing irregularities in the process that brought him to leadership, disqualifying him and the others from official nomination under the UPC banner.

The UPC constitution (Article 14.1(3)) limits the party president to two terms, unless the incumbent wins a national presidential election during their second term. Akena had already served two full terms (2015–2020 and 2020–2025), but since he did not meet the exceptional condition, his bid for another term breached the constitution.

The High Court in Kampala, presided over by Justice Bernard Namanya, ruled that Akena’s nomination for the 2025–2030 term was illegal, null and void. The decision followed a petition by UPC member Dennis Adim Enap, who challenged Akena’s re-nomination. The court also barred UPC from nominating him again.

“The process was interfered with," Akena said.

Drawing an analogy with football. “If I get a red card in the Masaza Cup and then I’m called for national duty, that red card cannot stop me from going for national duty. Here we’re talking about Uganda,” Akena said.

“Was I stopped outside the Presidential Election Act? Yes. Was it wrong? Yes, it was wrong. That’s why I continue to fight to be restored to put my message to the people of Uganda. And I am not tired. I will use every means possible to be on that ballot.”

He accused some political groups of trying to polarise Ugandans by reviving old tensions and using UPC as a scapegoat for the country’s current challenges.

“UPC has been out of power for 40 years,” Akena reminded critics. “Is UPC still the problem? It cannot be. We are still struggling with very simple things which UPC solved and can solve again.”

Akena concluded by saying his mission goes beyond the next election, declaring his commitment to building “a Uganda that works for all.”

“Irrespective of what happens, I will continue to stand for that Uganda, l will speak for that Uganda, and I will work for that Uganda which works for all of us,” he vowed.

He appealed to all Ugandans, regardless of political affiliation, to embrace unity and honest dialogue as the nation approaches another election cycle.

“We should be able to live in Uganda, even if we have different political ideologies. I come from a left-wing society, but I have the foresight to look at Uganda as bigger than all of us. That is what I will fight for,” he said.