By Josephine Maseruka

AGGREY Awori, the former MP for Samia Bugwe North, yesterday said he had joined the NRM because his former party, the Uganda People’s congress (UPC), had turned into a family business.

“I cannot be in a party that is tribal or more of a clan business. UPC is now a family affair,” he said on phone from his upcountry home. “The NRM has well- laid-down principles unlike UPC, which is not practical.”

Awori, a former presidential candidate, was for many years an opposition MP and strong critic of the NRM Government.
He rubbished claims that he had been bought to join the NRM. “I don’t need cash to differentiate between a family party and a principled one. Can those who claim I was bought tell us the amount I received?”

Awori called the UPC a “dead” party, whose members could not even solicit 10 votes each. “That is why its press conferences on Wednesdays have more journalists than party members,” he joked.
He denied having been promised a big post in the Government.

The UPC president, Miria Obote, cautioned Awori against maligning the party or its members.

“Most of those who cross give the same excuse of UPC being a family party. It is not true at all. If Awori has got a huge slice of buttered bread, as we hear, let him not malign the party that has nurtured him for all these years.”

Miria charged that Awori had stood for the party presidency and got only 18 votes.

She noted that some of the run-away members had been fighting for the party’s leadership.