08/11/2023
WAR BETWEEN TWO TOP M7 MINISTERS ESCALATES AS ACENG DECLARES: BETTY AMONGI HAS MONEY, THE GUTS BUT WE SHALL PEACEFULLY RETIRE HER IN 2026
Speaking to renowned Kampala political journalist Umar Kashaka, Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng vowed to drown her Gender counterpart Betty Amongi Ongom into a sea of her supporters come 2026.
In what has intrigued many political observers and leaders within the NRM party to which they both are supposed to be subscribing, the money-splashing Betty Amongi has increasingly distinguished herself as determined to abandon her safer Oyam South MP Seat in order to antagonise pioneer Lira City Woman MP Jane Ruth Aceng (barely three years in that office) and render her jobless come 2026.
Aceng asserted in the Kashaka interview that what she has accomplished in just three years speaks for itself and clearly portrays Betty Amongi as fatally unfit to uproot her in comparison with what the people of Oyam have benefited from her 25 years of legislative level representation. The supposed UPC First Lady first became MP in 2001 and has since sat in Parliament eating things on behalf of Oyam voters up to this day without break.
Aceng implied in the Kashaka interview that the people of Lira City are way much wiser than entrusting their future with someone who has had 25 years of uninterrupted representation but has delivered so little for the people of Oyam which ironically is the home district for the two antagonistic Ministers.
Making it clear that her supporters are prepared to force Amongi into the inevitable political Taiwan come 2026 regardless of how much money her camp invests in the 2026 Lira City vote, Aceng said there was nothing for her to be sleepless about. Not even the more than Shs300m the Gender Minister has so far invested in Lira City.
Aceng, about whom the President one time joked by stating that her constituency was already well secured at Nakasero, made it clear that she thinks Amongi is menacingly looking at her Seat just to avenge her 2021 declaration to Gen Museveni that, with her in charge as Woman MP, UPC was going to become history in the politics of Lango sub region starting with Lira City. That her coming into the picture pushed Amongi’s husband Jimmy Akena (who has already lost influential groups like LUMBA which unites all Boda riders) to the periphery of the Lira City politics.
INDOMITABLE ACENG:
Even when this (2026) was her first time trying out things, Aceng proved too popular and unifier to the extent that she polled 34,054 votes against UPC’s Joy Atim Ongom who (despite being the long serving incumbent) ended up with 19,088 as ANT’s Eunice Okullo Anna trailed with just 310 votes. This depicted the extent to which the people of Lira City had unanimously accepted the unifying, harmless and development-oriented Aceng regardless of their political, gender, religious and age differences.
In nearby Lira District, Florence Ongina, who the NRM flag bearer, was rejected and only managed 19,004 votes as independent candidate Agnes Linda Auma cruised to victory with 22,086 votes. The vigor and pomp with which Aceng disrupted the UPC super structure in Lango emboldened NRM candidates and cadres elsewhere and at the of the end, Dr. Milton Obote’s political party was diminished in its Lango backyard like never before.
In his case, the much-diminished Jimmy Akena won his Lira City East Division race with just 14,119 votes leaving the rest of his opponents (including James Ocen, Apollo Onyango, Rolex Patrick Akena, Moses Etyang, and Innocent Isaac Ongom & Patrick Aroma Guzi) to share the remaining 13,753 votes. Yet there are fears that the disputed UPC President, who has been Lira MP since 2006, might get defeated should he insist on seeking reelection come 2026.
In comparison, Aceng’s nemesis Betty Amongi Ongom secured 5th term as Oyam South MP by polling 27,024 votes. She trounced seven others including a one Queen Dorothy Amollo who came 2nd with 14,883 votes as NRM flag bearer Patrick Obong trailed with 5,504!
In the comprehensive Kashaka news feature, Amongi was portrayed as not keen to comment about her ongoing political feuding with Aceng preferring to become more overt towards 2026 after the EC has officially declared the campaigning season.
Several other leaders were quoted in the same interview and several of them had no kind words for Amongi. For instance, fearless Otuke East MP the very athletic Julius Acon Bua asserted that all leaders in Lango should gang up to ceaselessly denounce fellow elected leaders who act like Betty Amongi by abandoning their constituencies just to go and antagonise colleagues elsewhere.
Acon added that Aceng was too good and appreciated a Minister and scientist (both in Uganda and globally) implying no one should be allowed to go antagonising her in Lira City. Celebrating her as Mama Corona, Acon branded Aceng source of pride for the entire Lango who deserves commendation for the conspicuous role she played in enabling Uganda as a country’s response against Coronavirus.
Isha Otto, the diehard congressman who Amongi ousted from Oyam South, says the Gender Minister is very wrong to abandon Oyam and scatter its resources into Lira City while holding office in Kampala officially as Oyam MP. He castigates Amongi for acting in extreme bad faith against Ruth Aceng.
Felix Okot Ogong, the longest serving NRM legislator from Lango sub region, was vague and ambivalent preferring that Gen Museveni urgently creates some time and lead the two Ministers into deescalation of some sort because the Gender Minister’s curious decision to abandon Oyam will politically cost both the President and his NRM party in the long term.
To get the views of the Lango Cultural Institution, First Deputy Prime Minister Levi Okodi Macpio was interviewed and went bare knuckles on Betty Amongi. The Deputy Premier demanded that Amongi rediscovers her political compass and consider keeping in her lane in Oyam South as opposed to antagonising Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng who he described as too effective a representative of her Lira City people to be antagonised by anyone at this point in time.
The Deputy Premier reflected on the many things Aceng has accomplished in her first two and half years and contrasted that with what Betty Amongi has managed to deliver for the people of Oyam in the last more than 20 years she has been their MP without break. Kole Woman MP Judith Alyek, who carries a lot of political weight because of the fact that she chairs Lango Parliamentary Group, is equally demanding for deescalation because the sub region is better off having both Aceng and Amongi remaining part of the post-2026 legislature of Uganda.
Predictably, Amongi’s spouse Jimmy Akena has so far been very hostile to Dr. Aceng whose way of doing things and performance continues to incite detections of supporters from UPC to NRM in Lira City. He seemingly will never forgive Aceng for cracking up the politically very effective relationship he has for years been having with LUMBA which brings together Boda-Boda riders in Lira.
Otuke County MP the stinking rich Paul Omara has notably been very antagonistic towards Dr. Aceng in favor of Betty Amongi. Arguably the most belligerent politician from contemporary Lango, Honorable Paul Omara has overtly been very outspoken against Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng whose insistence prevented his native Barjobi Health Center 3 from inappropriately being elevated to Health Center 4 status.
