Obote to Return for UPC Meeting
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The Monitor (Kampala)
March 30, 2005
Posted to the web March 29, 2005
Andrew M. Mwenda & Alex B. Atuhaire
Kampala
Exiled former president Apollo Milton Obote will return to Uganda before August, his son and UPC leaders have revealed.
Obote's son, Mr Jimmy Akena, 37, who says he will be returning from exile in Zambia next week, told The Monitor that his father will come back to Uganda in time for the delegates' conference of the Uganda People's Congress (UPC).
The Chairman of UPC's Presidential Policy Commission, Dr. James Rwanyarare, also told The Monitor yesterday that the party was in advanced preparations for Obote's return.
Rwanyarare said UPC will officially announce plans for Obote's return at the party's weekly press conference at Uganda House today.
Obote, who turns 80 this December, has consistently said he will return to Uganda if and when President Yoweri Museveni's government allows a return to competitive multi-party politics.
According to the government's roadmap for the political transition, a referendum on the return to multi-party politics will be held on June 30. Museveni and the NRM will campaign for a return to party politics, a decision that was endorsed by the ruling Movement's National Council two years ago.
Both Rwanyarare and Akena said Obote, UPC's life-long president, will arrive in Uganda in time to attend the party's delegates' conference.
Rwanyarare said the party conference will be held not later than August this year.
"We are preparing a house in which Obote will live when he returns," he said. Akena, who is also Obote's private assistant on political affairs, said: "As we re-organise the party, the PP (party president) will be coming for the delegates' conference."
Obote is happy about the UPC status, the party having been registered earlier this month, his son said. Akena, who spoke to The Monitor by telephone from Lusaka, said Obote would disregard threats by President Museveni that he would shoot him on return. Museveni said while opening Hotel Africana in 1997 that Obote would be shot once he arrived at Entebbe airport.
Obote later said in a 1997 interview with The Monitor that once he was ready to return, he would disregard Museveni's threat. However, the party faithful in Kampala have often challenged the President to retract his threat as a pre-condition for discussing Obote's return.
Museveni was scheduled to meet Obote at a hotel in Lusaka on July 30 last year, but the twice-deposed president didn't show up. Instead, he sent Akena, his aide, Dr Henry Opiote, and party lawyer, Mr Peter Walubiri.
One Dev Barbar, a Zambian/Kenyan citizen of Indian extraction, had brokered the meeting.
Akena said their return was not discussed at last year's meeting. "That meeting turned out to be a meeting that never was," he said. "There was no agenda and nothing was discussed. It was just chaos."
Akena had announced earlier yesterday that he would also be returning to the country from exile in Lusaka, Zambia "on or about April 6", in time to attend the UPC Consultative Group Conference slated for April 11.
He said he had his father's blessing to return.
Akena said in an email to UPC "netters" that; "The conditions, which I had set for me to return my refugee card, were such that I could in return receive my UPC membership card as I stated in my 'GET BEHIND ME SATAN' posting of 15 October 1997."
"Though I put my application for voluntary repatriation shortly before the party was finally registered, the timing has actually worked out well. I intend to leave Lusaka on or about the 6th of April," he added.
Akena told The Monitor he was not worried about his personal security on return. "Uganda is my country. I am a citizen. I have my rights as a Ugandan. Nobody can deny me my rights to come and associate with others. I will be happy to be home."
He added: "A refugee's greatest hope and desire is to return home. Nobody leaves their country willingly unless you are going to pursue something."
Akena has lived with Obote in Lusaka exile since 1992 - having lived with his mother in Nairobi, since 1985, when his father was overthrown through a military coup in July that same year.
They have lived together with Obote's personal doctor and aide, Dr Opiote.
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Akena said he would not be in the country to represent his father's political interests.
"I don't have a (position) in UPC. I am a citizen who will be coming to participate within my rights," Akena said.
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