UPC, FDC squabbles: Can courts settle political party disputes?

In 1966, Apollo Milton Obote managed to remain in control of his Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) after outwitting opponents within the party, led by Grace Ibingira. 

But 57 years later, Jimmy Akena, Obote’s son, couldn’t continue with the trend after the Supreme Court confirmed that his election as the party president is a nullity.

For Obote, his misunderstandings with Ibingira were on the face of its ideological. Ibingira accused Obote of dragging the party to the left (communisms), something that annoyed the West.

Ibingira wanted to take UPC and the country in a different direction – the right – and assured the West that Obote would be ousted within no time.

For Akena, his troubles stemmed from a 2015 judgment by Justice Yasin Nyanzi, who has since retired, that the 2015 delegates’ conference that ushered his leadership was illegal as it violated not only the constitution of Uganda’s second oldest party, but also the Constitution of Uganda.

Although Justice Nyanzi had given that order, it didn’t work – thanks to an injunction that Akena got from then Deputy Chief Justice Steven Kavuma. But still, the Court of Appeal later upheld the High Court’s findings.

“...the argument presented by counsel for the appellants that Hon Akena was ‘unopposed’ during the nominations in the districts was not true. The results from the impugned elections were not consistent with the meaning of a candidate nominated ‘unopposed in Article 103 (6a) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda and Section 19 (1) of the Presidential Elections Act,” Justice Irene Mulyagonja wrote in the lead judgment at the Court of Appeal.

“The two provisions are clear on the position that for a candidate to be declared unopposed, there must be no other nomination at all presented at the commission before the closure of nominations for the position of president,” she added.

Akena, who took over from Olara Otunnu, has seen his leadership challenged by a group of UPC stalwarts such as Joseph Bossa, who passed on in 2019, Prof Edward Kakonge, and constitutional lawyer Peter Walubiri. But even in light of the Supreme Court judgment, Akena insists he is going nowhere since UPC is his child.  

“You have one child and someone wants to destroy that child. I will do everything in my power to protect my child,” Akena said. “And that child exists because we have done so.” 

Those who oppose Akena accuse him of selling out the party to the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM).

“This is a big project: reclaiming UPC is part of reclaiming Uganda… Mr Museveni, way back when he went to the bush, he was determined to destroy political parties such as UPC,” Walubiri says. 

“You can’t liberate UPC without freeing Uganda. Akena is part of the Museveni project. The courts have spoken wide and clear. Nyanzi was clear, the Court of Appeal was clear, the Supreme Court was clear, but what we are dealing with is the impunity of Akena, sponsored by Mr Museveni.”

The disintegration of UPC is decades-long, but reached its summit when prior to the 2016 General Election, Akena’s faction signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with NRM.

Akena agreed not to stand for the presidency and, in return, the NRM agreed not to harass him in his Lira Municipality constituency (Now Lira East).

“Most of you have not understood what this is about. This is political pragmatism. You may choose to believe what others are saying, but you need to know what this is about,” Akena said.

Later, President Museveni appointed Oyam South MP Betty Amongi, Akena’s wife, as minister for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, and during this term, she has been appointed minister of Gender, Labour and Social Development.   

In explaining the deal with the NRM, Akena said it would enable UPC to operate as a political party without being stopped by the police, which was at the time led by Gen Kale Kayihura.

“The most important thing is that if the party can operate then we have no problem. You see, if we are in an alliance, it will be hard for Gen Kayihura to teargas our rallies...that is the arrangement. We can field candidates and more members will now be in a position to stand since the ruling party, which was the opponent, will be an ally,” he said.

Still, prior to the 2016 elections, Akena’s faction announced that it would not field a presidential candidate, with the MP offering that the Opposition needs to get its priorities right and invest in the right places instead of going into elections for the sake of it.

For the 2021 elections, Mr Akena said he would retain his Lira East Division parliamentary seat and strengthen the party’s grassroots structures in order for it to be able to work on increasing its representation in local governments and in Parliament.

In broadening divisions within, Akena has continued to attend Interparty Organisation for Dialogue (Ipod) meetings, sometimes hosted at the behest of Museveni, a move that has annoyed other Opposition parties such as National Unity Platform (NUP) and Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) which have been ralling the Opposition to ignore the meetings on account that “nothing productive can come out of them, besides legitimising the NRM”.

Ipod was formed with a view of bringing all political parties with representation in Parliament to one table to discuss political issues, but it has proved to be divisive within the Opposition.  

“We would like to take this opportunity to extend a hand of friendship to the colleagues who by virtue of the recently concluded elections qualify to be members of the Ipod and this is specifically to the People’s Progressive Party and National Unity Platform (NUP),” Mr Akena said about Ipod in 2021.

Enter FDC

UPC isn’t alone when it comes to settling leadership disputes in court since FDC has now joined a long list of political parties that will now ask judges to resolve their leadership wars.  

FDC is now divided between the Katonga faction – led by Kampala Lord Mayor Erias Lukwago – and the Najjanankumbi faction led by Patrick Amuriat and Nathan Nandala Mafabi.  The Katonga faction insists that the Najjanankumbi faction, which has been recognised by the Electoral Commission (EC), is being propped by the State.

“I cannot be a party to a process that is going to install a ‘Mao-like’ leadership whose main objective is to carry the party to Museveni,” Kira Municipality Member of Parliament (MP) Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda, who is the spokesperson of the Katonga faction, said. 

“Battle to prevent Museveni from establishing himself as President for life in 2003–2004 was crucial in the development of FDC,” he added. 

The Katonga faction’s efforts to block the Najjanankumbi delegates’ conference in court on grounds that Mr Toterebuka Bamwenda, the Najjanankumbi faction electoral chairperson, was holding office illegally wasn’t successful.

“The interests of the applicants [Katonga faction] must be weighed against the general membership of the party and they do not have overriding interests against the other members. The potential positions or numbers of the membership of NEC [national executive committee] are not mentioned, but the applicants are 27 members as against the number which the respondent has mentioned of 76 for the NEC,” Justice Musa Ssekaana of the High Court’s Civil Division ruled.

“This implies that applicants are just 35 percent of the NEC and this would be against the majority membership and the entire party membership. The right of the applicants to be protected has to be weighed against the corresponding need for the respondent [Bamwenda] to ensure he exercises his mandate as granted by the party constitution and other party structures,” he added.

The position of the Katonga faction is that Bamwenda, Nandala Mafabi (secretary general), and Amuriat (president) were suspended by the party’s extra-ordinary delegates’ conference that was called by national chairman Wasswa Birigwa, who is also part of the Katonga faction.  

In their main case, which is still pending at the High Court, the Katonga faction says Bamwenda’s insistence that he leads FDC’s electoral body without the mandate of the delegates’ conference under Article 29(1) of the FDC constitution is illegal.

They say he usurped the powers of the party chairperson enshrined in articles 23(1) (3) and 28 (1) (b) of the party constitution by purporting to convene a national delegates’ conference that was organised on October 6 to elect members of the national executive committee. 

They say Bamwenda’s action of illegally convening a delegates’ conference contravened the democratic principles required of a political party under Article 71 (1) of the Constitution of Uganda and the provisions of the Political Parties and Organisations Act. 

“The delegates’ conference slated for October 6 will whittle down or completely obliterate the role and authority of the office of the chairperson and NEC, thereby pugging the party into anarchy, disorder, and chaos, much to the detriment of the applicants,” they said.

Although the Najjanankumbi branch celebrated Ssekaana’s decision not to stop their delegates’ conference, the Katonga branch has warned that the court struggle has only started. 

“What Nandala and Amuriat have done is to make their followers blindly believe that the illegality of their October 6 meeting and their purported election has been determined and certified by the court. The court process has just begun. It might be longer than they think and have been made to believe. This is, therefore, to inform the FDC delegates who instructed us to take this matter to court on September 19, that the process to have this matter determined has not been concluded,” Ssemujju said.

For UPC, Akena has told his followers to just ignore the Judiciary and proceed with party activities as he is not about to vacate Uganda House, where the party’s headquarters are.  

“The decision was over taken by events since we participated in 2021. I’m calling upon UPC party members to continue with the mobilisation for the upcoming elections and also to heighten our preparations for the 2026 General Election,” Akena said.