Okello Engola’s burial- Why was the Premiership and Speakership not represented?
By Acup Rashid
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On Saturday as hundreds of thousands flocked Awangi Village, Iceme Subcounty of Oyam North- Oyam District, something captured my attention and so did a few fellow mourners- the absence of the Prime Minister and the Speaker.
This scene to some of us spoke volumes. This however is not an indictment to the two powerful ladies of Uganda that completely they didn’t play a role that gave the Lango icon whose life was mysteriously ended by a one Sabiti Wilson just within his own compound a deserving send off.
Oh yes and thanks! He got a state burial and a Parliamentary session was accorded and streams of eulogies came through but why was there no single representation of the Speaker or her Deputy in Awangi and yet we saw the duo in the burial of the previous fallen legislators? For late Bishop Okabe, Deputy Speaker Rt Hon Thomas Tayebwa braved the dusty Serere roads to say fare thee well Bishop and for late Oulanyah, Mama AAA was there all the way.
The Premiership no show was yet another astonishing thing. These, we have the Prime Minister herself and a trio of deputies but alas, none showed up.
Well, one would say these fellows sent representation but seemingly the representatives got consumed by their locality. Predictably, Hon Denis Hanson Obua perhaps was in attendance on his behalf as Government Chief Whip and Speaker of Parliament but trust me he got subsumed by the local fact that he represents Ajuri County in Alebtong that’s part of Lango and thus a homie. The Hon Minister of Gender Mama Betty probably if sent by the Premiership also suffered the same. In fact, she was more of a sister than Hon Obua. The same was for Hon Dr Jane Ruth Aceng.
Truthfully though, there were other ministers like Hon Dr Chris Baryomunsi and Hon Jacob Oboth Oboth but the proceedings of the burial arrangements positioned them very differently. Hon Oboth Oboth was more of a representative of the Ministry of Defence and specifically the immediate successor to Rtd. Col. Charles P Okello Engola at the Defence Ministry. Dr Baryomunsi was even more confusing in his representation that the only thing we could discern of him was that, he was a mourner.
To bring the storm down, our fallen son of the soil could have had relationship issues if at all there was anyway with the leadership at Parliament and OPM but being a darling in Lango for his priceless contributions to pacify Lango and northern Uganda at large, the Speaker or her Deputy and the Premier or one of the trio of her deputies could have set foot in Lango to mourn with the people of Lango.
The writer is an NRM Media Activist from Lango