Africa-Press – Uganda. On Tuesday, January 19, Mr Samuel Odonga Otto, the Aruu County Member of Parliament, was taken to Gulu Regional Referral Hospital in Gulu Town after he collapsed while recording a statement at Pader Central Police Station in Pader District.
The lawmaker reportedly started feeling unwell last Saturday, two days after he lost his bid to represent the people of Aruu County in Parliament.
While being interrogated by police for allegedly escaping from lawful custody on January 6 at Rackoko Trading Centre in Awere Sub-county, Pader District, Mr Odonga developed fever and nausea and subsequently collapsed.
Mr Odonga had been arrested over violating the standard operating procedures during campaigns.He lost the bid to retain the Aruu parliamentary seat for the fifth time to Mr Christopher Komakech, an Independent candidate. Mr Komakech scored 9,327 votes against Mr Odonga’s 5,953.
In the 2016 General Election, Mr Otto scored 14,216 votes, beating his NRM rival, Mr James Navinson Kidega, who garnered 12,653 votes in the disputed race.
Mr Odonga is one of the 12 lawmakers in Acholi Sub-region who lost in the just concluded elections.Aswa County MP Ronald Reagan Okumu, who has been in Parliament since 1996, polled less than 2,200 votes to emerge 4th in the contest that was won by NRM’s Simon Wokorach with more than 14,000 votes.
Mr Okumu, who contested as an Independent candidate in 2016 against FDC’s Christopher Achire, won in the race for Aswa County constituency, having obtained 16,859 votes against the latter’s 5,316 votes.Besides Mr Okumu, Agago North MP Prof Moris Ogenga Latigo (15 years in Parliament) and Kitgum Municipality MP Beatrice Anywar (in Parliament since 2006) all lost.
In 2016, Prof Ogenga polled 3,659 votes, defeating NRM’s Amos Okot who got 14,079. However, in the latest polls, Mr Okot beat Prof Ogenga by a margin of 2,731 votes.
Other incumbents who lost in the polls are Ms Lillian Adong (Nwoya Woman MP – Independent), Mr Simon Oyet (Nwoya -FDC), Ms Molly Lanyero (Woman MP Lamwo District-NRM) and Ms Lucy Achiro (Aruu North-FDC).
Ms Judith Franca Akelo (Agago Woman -FDC), Mr Edward Otto Makmot (Agago North – Independent), Ms Lowila Oketayot (Pader Woman -NRM), and Mr William Nokrach (PWDs-NRM) also lost the race. Why they lostPreviously, Acholi Sub-region voted against the NRM party and its candidate, Mr Yoweri Museveni. However, the tide changed after the Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency ended about 14 years ago.Opposition parties in the region benefited from the force of the FDC’s principal campaign message; that President Museveni had overstayed in power.
However their success in the sub-region in both 2011 and 2016 polls was reversed in this year’s polls as the presidential votes went to Mr Museveni while the ruling NRM party took most parliamentary seats. In the same vein, several incumbent MPs of the ruling party lost their seats.
Daily Monitor established that the plot to rid Acholi Sub-region of MPs who had served longer in Parliament but with less impact was hatched recently by the NRM’s Central Executive Committee (CEC).On Tuesday, NRM party vice chairperson for northern region, Mr Jacob Oulanyah, explained in an interview that facilitating and empowering the party structures in the grassroots was agreed as a solution by CEC to rid Acholi Sub-region of Opposition monopoly.
NRM’s plan
“All party resources were sent through these structures. The least village in the country got Shs300,000. Besides money, we also provided each of these agents with bicycles and motorcycles that greatly motivated them to work, and that is how we penetrated,” Mr Oulanyah, who retained his Omoro parliamentary seat, added.
He noted that whereas NRM in the past would distribute a lot of money in the sub-region, it did not create any impact since a few party officials ended up embezzling it before it reached the grassroots.
“We got rid of that and ensured all our agents in the country up to the village level were facilitated directly and they were able to pass our message and disabuse our people of the threats portrayed, which were actually imagination of others and wrong about us,” Mr Oulanyah, who is also the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, added.
He said breeding a set of new and young legislators in the sub-region who are capable of soliciting development from government instead of fighting and opposing it every time was their target, irrespective of their party affiliations. Voters reactSome voters said the fulfilment of key pledges made in the past by NRM gave the party a mileage over other candidates in the elections.
“It is better to have the devil we know than the one we do not know; there has not been a better candidate for us here of all the 11 presidential candidates. Voting NRM was a better option since its government has improved a lot of our infrastructure despite overstaying in power,” Mr Emmanuel Onyang, a voter in Omoro District, said.
“The voting pattern this time should be a lesson to the defeated candidates and the new MPs we elected; our needs are first and that our voices must adequately be presented to government,” Mr Onyang added.
