Ex-rebel for UPC presidency
Aug 16, 2009
FORMER rebel leader, Sam Luweero, has returned from exile to contest for the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) presidency.
By Charles Ariko
FORMER rebel leader, Sam Luweero, has returned from exile to contest for the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) presidency.
Luweero, who headed the Uganda National Democratic Alliance, a rebel group that was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, returned from the UK on Thursday.
Speaking to journalists at the UPC party headquarters in Kampala, Luweero said he had come back to prepare himself to contest for the UPC presidency. The elections are due in October.
Before fleeing into exile, he was the managing director of Nile Breweries in Jinja.
Asked whether he did not fear being prosecuted for his involvement in rebel activities, Luweero said the issue was resolved when President Yoweri Museveni invited him for talks in 1994.
He said after talks with the President, he disbanded his rebel group and returned to the UK where he has been working as a business consultant.
As part of the activities to re-energise the party, Luweero said he was embarking on a youth recruitment drive.
He appealed to those who abandoned the party to return and help rebuild it in preparation for the 2011 elections.
Luweero said if he is elected UPC president, he would run for the top job in the country, the presidency, in the 2011 elections.
Olara Otunnu, who is in exile, is also expected to return to Uganda at the end of this week to vie for the UPC presidency.
Some UPC members are fronting Otunnu, a former UN diplomat, as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2011 elections.
UPC MPs, led by party vice-chairman Livingstone Okello-Okello held meetings with Otunnu on June 5 and 6 in Nairobi to urge him to be the party’s 2011 flag-bearer.
But Otunnu’s membership to the UPC is disputed by some members, who say he helped overthrow the UPC government in 1985.
The son of former president Milton Obote, Lira MP Jimmy Akena, has also declared his intention to vie for the party leadership.
FORMER rebel leader, Sam Luweero, has returned from exile to contest for the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) presidency.
Luweero, who headed the Uganda National Democratic Alliance, a rebel group that was active in the late 1980s and early 1990s, returned from the UK on Thursday.
Speaking to journalists at the UPC party headquarters in Kampala, Luweero said he had come back to prepare himself to contest for the UPC presidency. The elections are due in October.
Before fleeing into exile, he was the managing director of Nile Breweries in Jinja.
Asked whether he did not fear being prosecuted for his involvement in rebel activities, Luweero said the issue was resolved when President Yoweri Museveni invited him for talks in 1994.
He said after talks with the President, he disbanded his rebel group and returned to the UK where he has been working as a business consultant.
As part of the activities to re-energise the party, Luweero said he was embarking on a youth recruitment drive.
He appealed to those who abandoned the party to return and help rebuild it in preparation for the 2011 elections.
Luweero said if he is elected UPC president, he would run for the top job in the country, the presidency, in the 2011 elections.
Olara Otunnu, who is in exile, is also expected to return to Uganda at the end of this week to vie for the UPC presidency.
Some UPC members are fronting Otunnu, a former UN diplomat, as the party’s presidential candidate in the 2011 elections.
UPC MPs, led by party vice-chairman Livingstone Okello-Okello held meetings with Otunnu on June 5 and 6 in Nairobi to urge him to be the party’s 2011 flag-bearer.
But Otunnu’s membership to the UPC is disputed by some members, who say he helped overthrow the UPC government in 1985.
The son of former president Milton Obote, Lira MP Jimmy Akena, has also declared his intention to vie for the party leadership.