The leadership dispute in the UPC intensified on Friday when Jimmy Akena picked presidential nomination forms from the Electoral Commission (EC) headquarters, presenting himself as the party’s official flag bearer.
Later the same day, Joseph Pintyek Ochieno appeared at the EC, disputing Akena’s leadership and asserting that he is the rightful party president and, therefore, the legitimate presidential candidate.
Ochieno has since petitioned the High Court’s Civil Division, asking that Akena be held in contempt for allegedly continuing to pose as party president despite court rulings questioning his legitimacy.
He is seeking Shs300 million in damages or six months in prison for what he terms defiance of previous administrative court orders, including the invalidation of Akena’s online delegates’ conference.
Speaking on Next Big Talk on Next Radio on Tuesday, Ochieno reiterated his claim to the UPC presidency and accused Akena of undermining the rule of law.
“We were in court today on a major decision that is pending—the matter of who definitively is the president of the Uganda People’s Congress,” Ochieno said.
“I hope that in the next few weeks, a clear position will be taken by the court, confirming that I am the president of UPC and therefore the official presidential candidate.”
He also criticized what he described as a culture of impunity and self-entitlement in Ugandan politics, arguing that even the country’s founding party should not be exempt from constitutional order.
“We should kill impunity in this country and self-entitlement across the entire political divide, particularly within the founding party UPC. We must end the absence of constitutionalism,” he said.
Justice Joyce Kavuma, head of the Civil Division, is expected to deliver a ruling on September 8, just days before the EC’s nomination deadline on September 23–24.
