President Museveni is presiding over national celebrations of Tarehe Sita that are ongoing but the former freedom fighter is facing questions over his choice of venue – Apac, the home town of former President Apollo Milton Obote.
Terehe sita is marked on 6th February every year to mark the National Resistance Army’s first attack on Kabamba barracks in Mubende on 6th February 1981 which resulted into a five-year bush war that led the NRM in power in 1986.
Earlier today, Obote’s son, Jimmy Akena Obote, the Uganda People’s Congress Party President, insisted as a party and Langi, they cannot in anyway participate in such a celebration. Akena too says the celebrations bring bad memories of when his father was toppled. Akena was 17 when his father’s government fell on July 27, 1985.
Lango Parliamentary Group is already doing its part to make the fete moot, first Jonathan Odur, Erute South MP describes it as an event meant finally to celebrate total destruction of Lango by the then NRA.
“Imagine all our cattle were stolen in broad day robbery by those whom we have never known to date, and finally celebrating the day in Lango is an equivalent to dancing on the grave of the enemy,” Howwe.biz quotes Odur.
Museveni’s former ally and current chairman Langi legislators, Felix Okot Ogong also says the day reminds him of the many lives and properties that were destroyed in the region.
”I have severally stated that we as Lango can cooperate with NRM in all ways except celebrating Tarehe Sita because that is the day Museveni launched the war against our own Dr Milton Obote,”Okot argued.
