Which makes those of the non-degree holders ask a penitent question, has any
one ever bothered to read the report UN wrote about Otunnu and his service in
The UN? The man was born dumn, let us kindly move on which some of us stated
ion years ago when all of you saw salvation of a dead party from him.
Let us kindly spend just a little time and read what is available out there for
hanking on Otunnu is just illogical..
EM
On the 49th Parallel
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja and Dr. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni, Ssabassajja na Dk. Kiiza Besigye, Uganda ni katika
machafuko"
From: ugandans-at-he...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:ugandans-at-he...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of ocennek...@gmail.com
Sent: Thursday, March 05, 2015 10:08 PM
To: Ugandans Heart
Subject: {UAH} Pojim/WBK: How Otunnu lost control of UPC
http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/36673-how-otunnu-lost-control-of-upc
How Otunnu lost control of UPC
Written by Frank Kisakye
Last Updated: 06 March 2015
Olara Otunnu
A noble diplomat who didn’t cut it in Uganda’s banana politics
On Wednesday, Olara Otunnu resigned as UPC president, bringing an end to an
enigmatic reign of a leader who failed to weave his diplomatic skills into the
fabric of a party that has twice ruled the country.
Otunnu said he was stepping aside to concentrate on political activism.
“We must bring change to the country and I am not giving up on politics,”
Otunnu told journalists at the party headquarters.
By many measures, Otunnu has so far failed to make an indelible mark on
Uganda’s political landscape. A powerful orator, Otunnu cannot escape
suggestions that once he stepped outside the air-conditioned offices and
marbled walls of the United Nations in New York, he failed to find his way
around the intricacies of our politics.
“He jumped into a wrong field. He thought that he was going into politics of
diplomacy or student politics,” said Ayena Odong, a party MP who represents
Oyam North.
Ayena, a respected lawyer, said Otunnu’s goose was cooked once he failed to
connect with the people at the grassroots who form the foundation of UPC’s
support. This does not in any way suggest that Otunnu was bereft of any good
ideas on how to steer the country forward.
In September 2013, while unveiling what he termed as the UPC political agenda,
Otunnu said Ugandans must have the resolve to lead the change they want to see
in the country.
“This ingredient [resolve] has been conspicuously missing from the Ugandan
scene. Without resolve, we would have never witnessed the recent successful
uprisings in the Middle East and elsewhere, the collapse of apartheid in South
Africa, or the ending of segregation in the United States,” he said.
EXCITEMENT
Otunnu was elected UPC president on May 14, 2010, propped up largely by his
diplomatic experience and oratory skills. In him, some saw flashes of Dr Milton
Obote, the late charismatic party leader, whose legacy still towers above all
thanks to his brilliance and good articulation of issues.
Yet only months after taking over the reins, some of Otunnu’s decisions started
dampening expectations of him – and exposed him as an indecisive politician who
lacked the political nous to steward UPC to national leadership.
First, he pulled UPC out of the Inter-Party Coalition (IPC), an election
vehicle formed by the opposition to field a single candidate against President
Museveni in 2011, saying it would be useless for any organisation to
participate in the elections without electoral reforms.
“IPC’s reason-for-being is our unequivocal demand for genuinely free and fair
elections. That is our common IPC project. This is the glue that unites us.
Without that project, our unity is hollow and bereft of a substantive agenda,”
Otunnu explained in a statement issued on August 30, 2010.
Then he flip-flopped on whether UPC would participate in the 2011 elections,
saying his party would not participate in the exercise “whose outcome has
already been predetermined in favour of Museveni.”
Surprisingly, he was nominated in November 2010 as UPC’s presidential
candidate, before embarking on a countrywide campaign to explain why UPC needed
to be voted into power. However, on election day in 2011, he spectacularly
decided not to cast his ballot, even for himself, intriguing party supporters
and political observers.
“Otunnu had no experience of leading a party and did not understand Uganda’s
political environment. His resignation was the logical conclusion to this
reality,” said Dr Mohammed Kulumba, a senior lecturer in the department of
Political Science and Public Administration at Makerere University.
LEADERSHIP STYLE
This political inexperience showed in 2011, when Otunnu hastily sacked a group
of senior party leaders who were critical of his leadership style. They
included the then party chairman Edward Rurangaranga, secretary general John
Odit, and David Pulkol, the mercurial former director of research in Otunnu’s
executive.
The trio has since taken Otunnu to court. As if this was not bad enough, Otunnu
failed to forge a harmonious relationship with the Obote family. The family
accuses him of betraying Dr Milton Obote when he [Otunnu] decided to join the
government of Tito Okello Lutwa in 1985 that had overthrown the former UPC
president.
Otunnu was never going to have it easy without the endorsement of a family that
retains significant influence in the party. By failing to win the Obote family
support, Kulumba says, Otunnu’s leadership negatively affected the party’s
fortunes in some parts of the country.
“The party’s support is waning in some areas such as Lango, where it
traditionally enjoyed massive support because of Obote,” Kulumba pointed out.
Late last year, the party embarked on the process of renewing its grassroots
structure. The party had planned that this process would culminate in a
delegates’ conference on March 27.
Otunnu’s resignation now means that the party will have to first sort out the
leadership problem before it attends to other affairs. Our attempts to talk to
Otunnu were futile. Also, the party spokesperson, Okello Lucima, did not return
our calls.
<mailto:ekiggu...@observer.ug> ekiggu...@observer.ug
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How Otunnu lost control of UPC
http://www.observer.ug/news-headlines/36673-how-otunnu-lost-control-of-upc
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