By John Okello Lapok
All is not well within the Lango cultural Institution led by embattled 94-year-old Yosam Odur, the Lango Paramount Chief.
The 94-year-old ailing Chief has already written to President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni declaring a freeze into his hitherto plans for a transition of power to another leader.
Initially according to his letter, Wonyaci Odur who’s currently hospitalized in Kampala, had planned to organize elections on November 1 2024 for the election of his successor and officially handover power sometime in December 2024, in a colorful ceremony that Museveni would grace!
However, according to his two page letter to the General from Rwakitura, all these transitional plans have now been suspended indefinitely.
“Aware of my transition plans, Mr. Odongo Okune, in rush and defiance, taking advantage of my ill health and hospitalization in Kampala, went ahead and conducted an election in disregard to all laws, including the Lango Cultural Foundation Constitution, without an approved electoral commission on March 1, 2024, and purportedly installed himself on my throne as Won Nyaci at Lango Cultural Centre on March 15, 2024. This is a blasphemous attempted coup!” a bitter Odur said in his letter to Museveni referenced as “Transition of Lango Cultural Leadership and dated April 15, 2024.
Wonyaci Odur also appealed to President Museveni to ensure that the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development headed by minister Betty Amongi Ongom Akena halts all matters of Lango Cultural Leadership Transition since he is still in charge under the Institution of Traditional and Cultural Leaders Act of 2011.
“Therefore, I am now forced to reconsider my decision to retire but to hold on to my throne. I will come up with a new roadmap that will include a last chance at peace by trying to harmonize Tekwaro A’ Lango and the Lango Cultural Foundation before my departure,” he asserted.
He appealed to President Museveni to stop Eng. Odongo Okune (who is a commissioner in ministry for works) and his group from further causing divisions among Langis. The embattled chief warned that the continuous disrespect, defiance, and acts of abomination by Eng. Odongo Okune and his team, if not tamed, will affect his (Odur) succession and render it chaotic yet it must be peaceful.
In the same letter, the aging Odur, 94, highlighted Dr. Okune’s actions as most disruptive during his many years of service to Lango as their cultural supremo.
“During my tenure, I have experienced defiance, resistance, acts of indiscipline, and blasphemy from Eng. Michael Odongo Okune, a Commissioner at the Ministry of Works in the Government of Uganda. Odongo has since divided Lango by splitting clans and creating a parallel organization called “Tekwaro Lango,” running side by side with the “Lango Cultural Foundation (LCF),” where I am the Cultural Leader of Lango” he said adding that Museveni’s efforts to bring Odongo to order have been fruitless.
ENTER JANE BAREKYE
According to Mzee Odur, on February 26, 2024 during the occasion where State House moneybags Jane Barekye accompanied by health minister Jane Ruth Acheng and Denis Obua delivered a brand new vehicle to him as a gift to him, he made it clear through his minister for diplomacy that in his transition roadmap, the election for his replacement would strictly take place on November 1 and that it would be conducted under Lango Cultural Foundation Constitution of 2017. The new chief according to Odur would start his reign in December in a ceremony to be graced by Museveni himself.
Accordingly, the hospitalized chief told Museveni that he had given more life to his current cabinet team under James Ajal as the Prime Minister until further notice.
“My Prime Minister, James Robert Ajal, continues to work with my Cabinet, Advisors, Itogo Adwong, and the Council of Owitong with Speaker Benson Dilla, deputized by Jimmy Oyuko under LCF, in coordination with the government on all matters of Lango culture,” said Odur.
Recently, clan leaders and their delegates staged a coup of sorts after they elected Eng. Dr. Michael Moses Odongo Okune as the incoming Paramount Chief, pending enthronement in November. The function is expected to be attended by cream de la cream of the land and some diplomats from abroad according to what we gathered.
