Following a declaration by the Lira City East MP Jimmy James Michael Akena Obote to contest against his longtime political ally, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, for the Presidency in 2026, several politicians in the ruling National Resistance Movement, NRM, defected to the Uganda Peoples Congress party.
Those who defected from NRM with the view to hold the UPC party flag in Lira City East include James Ocen, aka Ocen Agipi, the proprietor of Gift Life Medical Centre in Teso Bar, Lira City, and Isaac Apenyo Acholi.
WHO IS OCEN JAMES?
During the 2021 elections, Ocen James, who is locally referred to as Ocen Agipi/Dr. Ocen by local residents, contested for the Lira City East parliamentary seat as an independent candidate against MP Akena but lost miserably.
Ocen as head of Okarowok Atar clan is known for his niceness to most mothers, but his political trouble escalated recently after it became clear that MP Akena, the UPC party president, had rescinded his decision to contest against President Museveni in 2026.
It has also been established that Ocen James has been silently ignored and sidelined from his list of UPC potential winners, and as a result, MP Akena is believed to be carefully selecting who to replace him in the event that President Museveni okays his contest for the Presidency in a move aimed at legitimizing Uganda’s democracy to international communities.
According to a source at the UPC headquarters, Ocen James is largely considered a weak politician with no chance of defeating any potential candidate from NRM, including Onyango Apollo or George Okello Ayo, who has since declared a do-or-die contest whether or not Akena will go for the presidency.
The source further revealed that MP Akena and his close cohorts, with the guidance of Minister Betty Amongi, have repeatedly denied to identifying with Ocen Agipi publicly for fear of being misquoted by his key stalwarts who have stayed in UPC for many years and they also want to be backed for the same Lira City MP seat.
Ocen is also largely hated in UPC for failing to influence his political structures, which he used during the 2021 elections to join the UPC party.
Another source revealed that Ocen is further faulted for not being politically assertive despite his money bag to fund his campaign activities given a chance in UPC.
In the next edition, we shall profile Peter Okodo, the proprietor of Jerusalem Medical School in Lira City who has expressed interest for Kioga MP seat. We shall reveal his political weaknesses and why perhaps he won’t win the seat.
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