I have two daughters, says Otunnu

By Darious Magara   

 Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) party president Dr. Olara Otunnu has sneered at people who discredit him on grounds that he lacks a family, by revealing that he has two daughters.

The disclosure will hit hardest those who have always faithfully thought that Otunnu is a single man with no family (children) of his own. While some have stopped at this assumption, others have gone ahead to associate what they perceive as his political leadership incompetence to his lacking a family.

“I have two daughters and they are here with us at Uganda House. 

“I want to finish the press conference and other engagements then attend to them,” Otunnu did not mince his words before journalists during the party briefing on Wednesday at the UPC head offices in Kampala.

 However, the revelation will not seem satisfactory to some people who won’t dare ‘believe without seeing’, as the UPC leader did not parade the said daughters before the press – and neither did he reveal their names.

He only maintained that they [his children] were in the next office in the same building.

Otunnu disclosed the existence of his yet-to-be-identified daughters in response to questions from journalists who said David Pulkol and Maj. Edward Rurangaranga had been attacking him for lacking a family and leadership skills to lead Uganda’s oldest party, UPC.

However, he made reference to the African culture when he admitted that he needs the support of the community to find himself a suitable wife.

 “For not having a wife, we should all take responsibility, since in the African culture, the searching of a suitor is a community business,” Otunnu remarked.

 “So I ask you the audience here and my critics Maj. Rurangaranga and Pulkol to wake up and take your responsibility to find me a suitor soon.”

 He further said that members of the public who are interested in finding out more about his family can pay him a visit at his home in Kampala where they would be served a good meal.

 He also mentioned that some African and world leaders were not married at all and others married late but that did not deter them from becoming great leaders. To cement his argument, he quoted Mahatma Gandhi of India and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.

“What would happen if I showed you my wife tomorrow? What would it change?” he asked.

“What makes a good leader is the vision, character and commitment and not his marital status,” a jovial Otunnu added.  

But he did not state whether he plans to get married.  

The UPC leader said he loved his unique African attire as opposed to copying the “suits from the white people.”

 An official at Uganda House said that Otunnu’s daughters were young and lovely girls. “What do you want with them? Do you want to expose them?” the official explained, when asked to describe them, and added that “they are like any other children.”

Rurangaranga is said to have claimed that they [party officials] ignored Otunnu’s marital status in voting him to the party presidency. Otunnu recently fired Pulkol and Rurangaranga and others from his cabinet.