|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Soroti District Woman MP Anna Adeke Ebaju used the belated Women’s Day celebrations for her area to sarcastically rally her poverty-stricken voters, majority of whom are FDC and generally opposition supporters, on how to take advantage of the ongoing NRM voter register update and new membership registration exercise to beat the ruling party functionaries at their game.
Soroti is one of those remote Teso sub region districts where the regime functionaries like RDCs, DISOs and mobilizers are feared and worshipped like demigods. Their word is taken like a commandment from God. So, they have always used their offices to subdue and politically cow the population into submitting and buying into the NRM propaganda and rhetoric.
In her speech, Anna Adeke (who like her opposition seniors like Kizza Besigye was deliberately quoted out of context by some media actors) encouraged her electors (who turned up in thousands) to use every trick and gimmick to access whatever benefits that can be accessed off government welfare and social economic transformation programs.
Adeke reflected on the fact that RDCs and other regime functionaries in Soroti often lock out hundreds of people while denying them access to government programs like Emyooga or even PDM simply because they don’t support the incumbent Ugandan President and his ruling establishment called NRM.
She sarcastically encouraged her voters, even when they profess membership to the opposition FDC, to take advantage of the ongoing registration into the NRM yellow books if that can increase their eligibility and access to the benefits coming under government social economic transformation programs like Emyooga under which priority always goes to those who profess NRM (at least for the case of the opposition-dominated Soroti).
That benefits deriving from accessing such government programs can be used to improve livelihoods of such residents while enabling them to participate in the anti-Museveni struggles more meaningfully. What Adeke sarcastically said isn’t different from what her seniors in the struggle like Dr. Kizza Besigye, Patrick Oboi Amuriat and others have said to crowds before using similar sarcasm.
They have previously encouraged opposition supporters not to reject money being offered by the NRM people as long as the money can be used to engender the struggle for regime change and a better-governed country. Adeke’s supporters have also been arguing that getting enrolled onto the NRM yellow books is a good way to enable opposition actors and mobilisers to infiltrate NRM and get to influence who finally gets fronted to become the flag bearer for the ruling party come 2026.
All this notwithstanding, fake news peddlers had twisted and distorted Anna Adeke’s belated Women’s Day celebrations speech to appear as if she amplified support for the ruling NRM party but gratefully, her utterances were made publicly and in presence of over 2,500 people at Awoja Primary School play grounds where the likes of Soroti LC5 Chairman Simon Edoru, RDC Salim Komakech and Fisheries State Minister Hellen Adoa (who was Guest of Honor at the celebrations) were all in attendance.
The Soroti District celebrations couldn’t be held promptly on 8th March because of the national celebrations which most of the leaders and political actors from Teso sub region had to attend in Katakwi district.
If you have a story in your community or an opinion article, let’s publish it. Send us an email via [email protected]. Follow our WhatsApp Channel HERE and our Telegram Channel HERE to see more of our stories.
Rip