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In Lira city, majority of the serious people have refused to buy into Betty Amongi’s candidature for the woman MP seat. They have opted to stick with Jane Ruth Aceng, the incumbent who first won the seat in 2021 when she defeated UPC’s Joy Atim Ongom.
The elites are of the view that Amongi is just a spoiler who had no convincing reason to abandon Oyam south for Lira city. She has been MP for 25 years but doesn’t have much physical achievements to point at.
The first 10 years (2001-2011) were served as woman MP Apac district then she came to Oyam south where she stood in 2011 and removed fellow UPC Isha Otto, who is now in NUP after teaming up with Peter Walubiri to fight Jimmy Akena for all these years.
For 15 years she has been MP for Oyam south but the Lango elites are angry that Amongi never used her connections to help transform rural Oyam. Personally, she is very rich with capacity to lend MPs money without interest because money isn’t her problem.
But Oyam south is among the poorest parts of Lango with high school drop out rate and one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates. Her brother Geoffrey Owile, who has been serving as assistant clerk in parliament, is now the UPC flag bearer and it’s either him or NRM SG Richard Todwong’s PA Richard Ogwang Oburra going to carry the day in Oyam south on 15th January.
However, the Lango elites are angry that Amongi has left the area so undeveloped after serving for 15 years as their MP. They are wondering what magic she is going to use to deliver anything tangible for Lira city as woman MP yet she has done nothing for Oyam and Apac earlier on where she served for 10 years as woman MP.
She was chairperson UWOPA (which unites all female MPs in parliament and the NGO has a lot of donor money) but still never used that to elevate Oyam. Even as minister of Kampala, Lands and later on gender, the Lango elites are angry that Betty Amongi never did anything tangible that specifically elevated Oyam or even the entire Lango.
As such, the elite dislike her and are determined to prevent her from becoming new MP for Lira which is the capital city of Lango.
They also dislike her lack of respect for clerics like Bishop Alfred Olwar (professor) who heads Lira diocese and the Lango cultural leadership led by Cedric Fredrick Ogwal Oyee, the ex-UN diplomat who is also the proprietor of Lira Palm Gardens hotel. She is behind Odongo Okune who was blocked by Judge Philip Odoki of Lira high court.
She is also disliked for defying the orders of Obote’s sons led by Tony Akaki who recently ordered her to vacate their late father’s residence in Lira. Amongi refused to leave daring them to do what they want, because being minister, she has the majje/military power.
In contrast, the elite see Aceng as the more organic leader in her community who has been able to impact service delivery in Lira city and the whole Lango sub region in just a few years since becoming MP in 2021.
Because of Aceng, Lango sub region now has the best health facilities in the country that are well staffed with health workers and equipped with state of art equipment, while Lira regional referral hospital (their pride) has become the model RRH for the whole country.
They are imagining how much transformation Aceng would selflessly deliver for the region if she had had the chance to serve for as long as 25 uninterrupted years which Betty Amongi has had.
Having been rejected by the elites, Betty Amongi has opted to being the candidate of the unserious. These are the downtrodden who happen to be the majority in every society. This has given her upper hand of some sort and thereby improving her chances.
She has resorted to being a down-to-earth candidate who goes in Malwa joints and shares a pot with ghetto boys. These like to use of vulgar and obscene words-and Amongi has no problem buying for the booze as part of her mobilization and upon getting intoxicated she dances with them while allowing any of them to dance squeeze and touch any part of her body.
She has come to the conclusion that the end (winning) will justify the means. This association with society rejects and pipe smokers in Lira city has also alienated Amongi from the protestant, catholic and Pentecostal churches leaderships in the area. Some of the clerics now see her as irretrievably gone and beyond repair.
Having given up on her, such clergy leaders have embraced the more decent Jane Ruth Aceng whose approach to genuine community empowerment is being considered as authentic and more acceptable as opposed to doing crude things simply because you want to show the grass root community members that you are one of them.
