Inside Dokolo's delicate by-election balance to replace Cecilia Ogwal
By Catherine Ajuna Ayebare.
January, 8 2024 was a dark day for all the people in Dokolo when their Member of Parliament succumbed to cancer in the lonely confines of a hospital in India.
Cecilia had found her footing in the nations politics in 1980 and by 1996 she had become an unwavering guardian of Dokolo's women and a grounded voice for the voiceless.
Dr. Rosemary Alwoc of FDC, one of the contestants for the vacant seat said,"What Dokolo has had for decades is something exceptional."
Her demise left a huge scar on Dokolo hearts and what they had might take years to emulate. It was built with years of hard work and love of the land; a reason Dokolo had the same Woman MP for years.
On the evening of March, 18,2024, the Dokolo Woman MP candidates had a debate inclusive of six candidates from different political parties battling brains about with their manifestos and proving their worth and intentions in the nation's eye.
Harriet Ageno of the National Unity Platform mentions that one of the human violations that Dokolo is facing is having a lake and not being allowed to fish or do any other economic activity on it.
"If the government wants to fish, let them regulate and let everyone fish. They now have their people doing the fishing but they are selling a kilogram at shs15000 to the locals," Ageno said.
Rebecca Arao of the independent party expressed her concern about farmers who are still stuck in subsistence farming which has limited benefits in terms of profit-making as compared to commercialised farming.
"Most farmers don't send their children to school. They produce their agricultural output but prices go down and in the long run, they cannot pay their children's school fees."
Still represented was the Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) by Sarah Aguti Nyangkori , National Resistance Movement's Janet Rose Adongo Elau, Dr.Grace Hannah Lalam and Dr. Esther Akullo Obot under the independent card.
