On May 26, 2016, Dr Olara Otunnu formally resigned as president of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) and handed the reins to his deputy Joseph Bossa.
This plunged the party into a leadership fight pitting Otunnu and Bossa, on the one side, against the James Akena-led faction. In a ruling this month, deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma ordered Bossa and his allies (Prof Edward Kakonge and Isha Otto) not to interfere with how Akena and his cabinet run the party.
He further ordered that an order made by High court judge, Yasin Nyanzi, in 2015 declaring that Akena was illegally elected should not to be executed until the main application is heard. Days before the ruling, Bossa, a former financial lawyer with Bank of Uganda, spoke to Abubaker Mayemba about the wrangles in his party. Excerpts:
What do you make of Akena’s recent assertion that he is running a functioning party?
A functioning headquarters? He did it through violence because he got goons who threw out the true leadership of UPC and the entire secretariat [in 2015]. He occupied it and continues to do so with the support of the Uganda police.
If you are not a UPC president and you are occupying the party’s headquarters, does that make it a functioning headquarters? You have thrown out the legitimate leadership; so, whatever you are doing there is illegal.
This man [Akena] has the capacity to tell lies without any shame. One thing I admire about Akena is his capacity to ignore facts and believe facts of his own creation. The name for that in psychological medicine is, psychotic, a person who lives in a world of his own imaginations. He will even think he is the president of Uganda.
Before party elections last year, Otunnu and Akena had ironed out their differences. Akena was even allowed to pick nomination forms after the deadline passed. What happened?
We thought he was genuinely interested in seeking the presidency of UPC in a straightforward manner. Mr Otunnu thought that closing him out because the deadline had passed would make him go around the world claiming he had been discriminated against. Of course, he would never have mentioned that the deadline for picking papers had passed.
He would simply tell the world he was disqualified because Otunnu discriminates against him. So, Otunnu said, “okay, even though I strongly believe that Akena is not interested in the UPC leadership perse, he is a mole, let him contest and the people decide.”
When we had district conferences, by 3:00 o’clock he had invaded the headquarters and held hostage the secretariat and electoral commission staff who were waiting for results from the districts. He and his group were, instead, giving them results.
He later decided before arrival of the full results, that since he had won in 65 districts, he had won the election. He came back and confronted the electoral commission and said; “in view of the fact that we have got 65 districts, it’s no longer mathematically-possible for other candidates to get the one-third support; so, I should go to the delegates’ conference. So, only I can go and I’m president-elect.” It was Akena deciding.
How did he do that yet the EC had powers to say he was not party president yet?
It was physical. They [EC] were virtually, at gunpoint. They had been surrounded; so, out of five commissioners, I think two or three, but excluding the chairman, signed, declaring that he [Akena] was president-elect. We don’t even have that concept in our party constitution.
On Monday those of us who had been presidential aspirants filed our complaints about the electoral process with the Electoral Review Board (ERB). We told them that in some of the districts, none of our members had participated in the conferences and in some areas no election took place.
In Kampala, my agent told me that he saw non-party members come to vote, people who couldn’t identify themselves on the voting list. Mr Otunnu, the party president then, said that ‘okay let’s meet on Friday June 5 with the EC and ERB members and all candidates and see what we can do.’ We tendered in our complaints. All candidates were asked to step out so that the two organs make decisions.
When they were still deliberating, Akena and group stormed the boardroom in huge numbers and dragged the EC members to the press room with cameras flashing and instructed them to declare Akena president. Otunnu declined. He said if they wanted to kill him, they were free to do so but he refused to declare Akena party president.
That is when he [Otunnu] walked out, that’s when you saw pictures of people calling him a rat, a rat is running out and all that. From that time, they occupied the headquarters of UPC.
Akena says the ERB was a tool created by Otunnu to push his agenda and he couldn’t accept its decision.
The Election Review Board never functioned. It did not make a single pronouncement. It was supposed to hear complaints but he didn’t allow it.
You said elections were not conducted and there were no people in some places. Don’t you blame that on your party structure? As vice president, do you think you built any party grassroots structures?
Grassroots are a difficult issue because of two reasons. In December 2014, when we were trying to prepare for the March 2015 delegates’ conference to elect a new party president, Fred Ebil went to court and obtained an injunction against any party activity. So, we couldn’t even hold elections. But in early 2013, we got some money from our supporters.
It was Shs 200m and half of it was to buy furniture and the rest to facilitate elections for new structures. A section of members got hold of the money and started holding fake seminars and some badly- organised elections. In the end, all the money got finished. We went into that election deeply hobbled because we were to meet this deadline of a new leadership.
When the date expired, they went to court and said Otunnu’s term had expired, so there was no president. And that’s when Justice Stephen Musota said the party leader remains until after fresh elections.[The judge ruled that there was already an on-going election road map and that Article 26(1) of the party constitution stipulates it clearly that a person shall continue holding office until new elections are held].
When the ruling was issued, that’s when Akena rushed to pick papers. When court said Otunnu still had powers, Akena knew that he would be left out, that’s when he pressured Otunnu to allow him pick nomination papers.
When you say the leadership is to blame for not conducting elections, you are wrong. As given in the background, failure of the regime to conduct elections can be pinned on the stealing of money and the court injunction prohibiting party activities.
Akena called a consultative meeting of UPC members in Lugogo. When they convened, within five minutes they passed a decision to constitute themselves into a delegates’ conference.
Were these people senior members?
We don’t know, but some were not. In any case, it wasn’t an organ of UPC and we don’t know in what capacity they were in there. But in any case, the point was that whether they are senior party members or not, they couldn’t convert a consultative meeting into a delegates’ conference.
A delegates’ conference, according to our constitution, can only be convened by the party president not any member, be it senior. After that, they went on to make a resolution saying Akena has been elected president. That’s when I went to court asking whether it was true that the electoral commission and UPC [had] declared Akena president.
And court agreed with me that whatever document had been signed declaring Akena president was null and void. Akena says he has appealed but when you appeal, the decision of the lower court remains in force until the higher court has reversed it. He will now say he went to the Court of Appeal and court ruled that the status quo remains.
Whatever interpretation you may want to put on that ruling, the status quo is: Justice Nyanzi said he is not president. By February 15, 2016, the UPC bank account had already been frozen not on my own initiative but the bank’s.
They wrote saying that because the leadership of the party was in dispute; it [bank] had decided to freeze the party’s account. Now Akena says I’m blocking party activities because I went to court and froze the account. That is misinformation. I did not. It was the bank, on its own, which said that it was hard to know who should run the account; so, it blocked it.
Akena maintains that because you people blocked the account, the party does not have funds to run its activities.
First of all, he is not the president. He should not run the party. Secondly, neither I nor Otunnu ordered that. When we got the Justice Nyanzi order, we went to the bank, saying Akena had no mandate to run the account.
We asked them to restore the signatories but the bank decided that neither we nor they[Akena] would be allowed to operate the account. That’s why they froze it. We don’t have access to the account. I went to court to dispute Akena’s presidency and not to block the accounts.
2021 is getting closer and you are still fighting; doesn’t that affect you?
It does concern me very much. But for many years, Otunnu was telling the world, diplomatically, that Akena was a mole in UPC, working closely with NRM.
He claims he is working with him [President Museveni] to build a better Uganda.
We work with NRM after being sanctioned by the party organs. But when you go on your own, after grabbing power, and begin working with Museveni, you are doing so outside the party’s constitution.
If they say you have been cooperating as a mole, then their argument is right. For instance, in April 2011 after the general elections, we went to Mukono and the National Council (NC) passed a decision authorising the cabinet to coordinate with any individual or democracy-seeking organisation for the betterment of the country. Even if UPC worked with FDC, DP, CP and Jeema, then that partnership was in line with the mandate given by the NC.
How is Akena’s cooperation with NRM affecting the party?
Museveni and NRM are using Akena to destabilise the party. They occupy party headquarters; they disrupt our meetings. As the true leadership of the party, we had organised a council meeting of the NC to map the way forward for the party.
Akena, using the police, stormed the meeting and disrupted us. The chief organisers like Peter Walubiri and Isha Otto Amizza were locked up in Kireka cells for two days.
As the “true leaders of UPC”, have you tried to engage the police?
Too much, we complained to the Central police station, Kampala, and said ‘someone is occupying our premises’. They refused to cooperate with us. Otunnu at some moment met with the Inspector General of Police Kale Kayihura and explained the situation to him. He pretended he was not aware and asked Otunnu to write to him but when Otunnu wrote, he got no reply.
The Milton Obote Foundation (MOF), the owners of Uganda House, went to CPS and said an unrecognised group has thrown out their clients and refused to leave the premises, the police did nothing. MOF even opened a criminal trespass case against the Akena faction, the director of public prosecutions (DPP) took it up but later gave it up.
Not only we as leaders of UPC but even the owners of Uganda House have engaged police and went to court. NRM through police have frustrated all our efforts.
They say you are being used by MOF, that during your tenure in office, you failed to monitor MOF’s spending.
He should not mix issues. The accountability between UPC and MOF, that has nothing to do with the leadership of UPC. It has nothing to do with the succession in UPC. Whether we did or did not, has nothing to do with Akena being the UPC president now.
We are saying ‘Akena, you should have allowed the election to take its course. You disrupted it by making yourself president of UPC and you should have followed the party constitution. We don’t care who you are and where you are from. We are just saying that’s not the way leadership of UPC is determined.’
Courts have said he didn’t follow the party constitution, don’t colour that with anything else. Don’t say we are fighting him, we are fighting the process.
How are preparations to replace Otunnu progressing?
I have gone very far with the elections. As soon as I was elected, I set up a committee to organise elections. One thing they have started with is to organise a national council meeting [due soon].
The NC will give us guidance on how and when to hold a delegates’ conference to elect a party president. The NC meeting will determine for us who qualifies to stand for president and how the election will run.
What have you achieved so far as party president?
I have survived. The party is still here. My main aim at the end of the day is to ensure that before the six months I was given expire, the party would have elected a new president.
Are you going to contest?
As far as I am concerned, the party constitution doesn’t bar me. We are going to pass new rules that if the national council meeting decides that I shouldn’t run, even if I wish, that would be it. The NC will determine who is eligible to stand. Before Christmas this year, UPC will have elected a new president.
Won’t the Akena faction disrupt the process?
If Akena, the NRM and police decide to disrupt the process, let the blood be upon them. Let them tell the world why they did it. But that should not be the reason for failure, on our part, to try.
Where are your offices and how do you handle the finances now that Akena’s faction occupies Uganda House?
We have offices in Mabirizi plaza on Kampala road. That is where we are operating from. But I have been telling members that UPC is not about the physical place, the 6th floor of Uganda House is not UPC.
In fact, since its inception, UPC moved into Uganda House in 1980 but it remained a political force. UPC has even operated outside Uganda, when Milton Obote was in Tanzania. Don’t put too much emphasis on the physical floor at Uganda House. We are operating minimally, the little money that we have has been frozen by the bank.
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