Many of you who followed the recent Uganda presidential polls may only know of President Museveni and Bobi Wine as the two major candidates for the presidential election whose results were in favour of President Museveni.
In that election, however, was a candidate called Jimmy Akena who ran on one of Uganda’s oldest parties, the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC).
The UPC was founded in the 1960s, with its leader being Dr. Milton Apollo Obote.
Dr Obote emerged as the first Prime Minister of Uganda, having formed an ‘opportunistic’ alliance with the Baganda’s Kabaka Yekka Party.
Be that as it may, Jimmy Akena happens to be the son of Milton Obote. His full name is James Micheal Akena Obote.
The UPC was led by his father from the 1960s till his demise in 2005. Thereafter, the party leadership moved to his mother, Miria Obote.
Mama Miria Obote became UPC presidential candidate in the 2006 polls, emerging a distant fifth with 0.8% of the vote.
The party in post-2010 was led by the diplomat Olara Otunnu, who again faired dismally in the presidential polls.
In the 2026 polls, Jimmy Akena forced himself as the party’s presidential candidate. Jimmy is the third born son of Obote and Miria. He polled dismally too, emerging near bottom. This was as a result of internal wrangles in UPC and the uncouth manner in which he took charge of the party.
Following his decision to contest the presidency, the by-election in Lira to elect his MP successor was won by NRM. The Obotes effectively killed the UPC in its Lira heartland.
As ODM navigates the future in this post-Raila world; I hope its leadership will not make the mistakes which the UPC made, turning a once northern behemoth into a fringe, hollow party; steeped in family wrangles and political misadventures.
By the way, the wife of Jimmy Akena is a Minister in Museveni’s government. Some of these political families in East Africa take their immediate communities for fools.
Dikembe Disembe is a Political Researcher and Writer
