Oulanyah mourns Lokech, recounts accident in house

Our reporting of his comments in Saturday Monitor contained inaccuracies, which we regret. We, therefore, publish a slightly edited version of what the Speaker said.  

“As Parliament, we will find occasion in the next two weeks to have a tribute motion debated to honour Lt Gen Paul Lokech.
 We’ will talk about a lot of things, and in that debate, I want all MPs from this region [Acholi], to be able to say something about Lt Gen Paul Lokech, and I will be there to give the closing remarks.

On the issue of the Parish Model that [Operation Wealth Creation Coordinator] Gen [Salim] Saleh and the Chief Justice [Owiny-Dollo] are talking about, that matter is coming to Parliament.
We shall have an occasion to look at it, turn it upside down and see what works for the people of this country.

We will not be looking at the 15 years ago, we will be looking at the current proposition that President Museveni has been articulating for the last two years, that is what we will be examining.

Countrymen, wake up, trouble has come. One musician sang that ‘it does not shake my pants’ but this one [death] is shaking our pants to its core. This death [of Gen Lokech], no matter who you are... is painful.

Elder Peter Okwera spoke here that we go out and search for the cause of this death ourselves because it has pained us to the core. That if only we could discover death’s hideout, we would have fought it utterly.

As the Acholi, for Gen Lokech, had it required fighting, he wouldn’t go (die) alone, facing death.
Had it required us sparring with spears, you wouldn’t die alone, all of us here would all be bruised for you.
We are very frustrated.

At a young age, you have departed from us. Fare-thee-well, go with our blessings because you are no more, and there is nothing much we can do for you as Acholi.

We lift our hands to the King of Heaven. Go with our glory, what else can we do?
We raise our hands to God to stand with us; help us God.

A musician once sang that ‘the Acholi seem to have no god’, but we have a God (in heaven), who stands by us!
We cry out, but we have hope.
It’s catastrophic, it’s catastrophic!

Those of you who used to hear about Lokech, Lokech. When I visited him, we cooked outdoors over an open grill together. We ate and bid farewell to each other. That incident pains me like fire.

He was a giant, and whenever we met, I would tease him to first sit down before we talk because my neck will hurt when talking to him because I should support my neck when speaking up to the giant.
 He has gone! He is no more!
He has left behind girls and boys, he has left behind a widow.

Do not let your tears cover the stars God has created in heaven, there are still so many things behind here that God has gifted you.

Instead open your eyes, be happy because your husband, your father has left behind a legacy that cannot be shaken.
He never offended anyone, he never robbed anyone, you can hear everybody praising him to be righteous, and you’ve to emulate him.

The same thing Lt Gen Lokech told his children is what he told me the day we met before his demise.
‘What do we do to help the people of Acholi, what do we do to help Acholi?’

Perhaps that was his last message to me saying, ‘what do we do to help Acholi out? You people are now there, what shall we do for Acholi? Go and stand for us and help Acholi.’

 Those were his words to me.
We were meant to meet at my home, but he said I cannot come to your home but come to mine.
When I went there, he narrated to me how he got injured.

Because I started by teasing him, when he told me he had problems in his leg and the doctor had said he should not go anywhere.
I asked him, hasn’t someone shot you already?

He told me step by step how he got injured inside his own house.
He said the army had directed officers to take fresh photographs, compelling him to look for his military pips. But he couldn’t locate them since he had switched his work station to the police headquarters.

He said he then walked upstairs, but found the ladder he normally used to check items in the ceiling had been removed by one of the children and he instead climbed up using a plastic chair.

With his entire height, he said he got up the chair and started searching for the pips, but the chair collapsed and he fell on the floor with his leg stuck in between the chair.

He told me he was helpless, there was no phone with him and he started calling out loudly until his younger daughter Maria rushed to his rescue.
He got ice cubes and wrapped them in a sheet and kept rubbing it on the injured leg until the pain subsided and a doctor was called in.
That was his account of how he got injured.

Unfortunately, this is the very injury that days later, I heard, had escalated and resulted in his death.
I have heard some people here saying the cause of death should not be disclosed, but the doctors are here and they know well how it came about. They must tell the people now how a small injury in the leg down the body there can all of a sudden kill someone.

They must tell us, and they must explain very well how a small injury can later kill you, a giant [Lt Gen Lokech].
You swallowed fire in Mogadishu, rockets and grenades would explode around you, but you survived all of them and then an unbelievably small thing brings you down!

They should explain, not us. And that task of explaining what exactly killed [Gen Lokech] must not be shifted or blamed on anyone else.

People must stop unfocused talk. This thing [what happened to him] is clear. There was an injury, doctors helped and were treating him. How then did the injury kill him, tell us, we want to listen to it.
It will not bring him back to life, but it will let us know what killed him exactly.

Mzee Peter Okwera [family elder] said those whose child had died should instead be the ones to trace and find out what killed him.
But I am saying, there is nothing and no reason why we have to further trace what killed him [Gen Lokech]. Those who worked on this thing [his leg] are there.

Isn’t that the case? [mourners chant approval].
Go well our giant, go well, go with pride, and go with our blessings.
God be with you.
 Thank you all.

Jacob Oulanyah, Speaker of Parliament
Transcribed by Tobbias Jolly Owiny