Henry Mayega of UPC and one of the party’s presidential hopefuls, was hosted on KFM’s evening Hot Seat show by Charles Mwanguhya-Mpagi.

Mayega mentioned the “huge number of people” campaigning for the UPC party presidency as a sign that there is democracy in the party, Uganda’s second-oldest party.

Mayega was Vice Chairman of the Presidential Policy Commission. He said the party must find a mechanism for resolving their internal conflicts, so that they don’t always have to resort to the courts of law. “Political problems can never be sorted out in the courts of law,” Mayega said.

The UPC delegates’ conference is slated for Saturday, March 13. The delegates’ conference was originally scheduled for March 6, 2010.

Mayega said this is the time that Ugandans of his age group take over leadership of Uganda.

Other UPC party presidential candidates Joseph Ochieno, Jimmy Akena and Olara Otunnu were campaigning in the countryside.

Radio Simba’s Olutindo talk show on Wednesday evening March 10, hosted by Dick Mivule, also focused on the UPC’s forthcoming delegates’ conference. Eric Sakwa of the UPC was hosted by Radio Simba.

Sakwa refuted reports that Jimmy Akena, the Lira Municipality MP and party presidential hopeful, had dragged his mother and party president Miria Obote to court over irregularities in scheduling the delegates’ conference.

Peter Walubiri, Okello Okello, Chris Opoka, and Patrick Rubaihayo sued the UPC for sacking them.

UPC stalwart Patrick Mwondha was guest on Olutindo on Tuesday, March 9.

The UPC’s achievements

Because of its antagonistic relations with Buganda and the controversy over its human rights record, it is easy to forget the achievements of this historic political party.

The UPC government in 1969 started building Uganda House, a 12-floor building along Kampala Road that remains one of the landmarks of Kampala City. It remains the party headquarters and is one of Kampala’s prime properties.

During the 1960s, the UPC government built 22 hospitals across the country and to this day, many of these hospitals remains the only hospitals in most parts of the Ugandan countryside.

With a grant from the United States Agency for International Development, several chemistry, physics, and biology laboratories were built in several leading secondary schools in Uganda.

Uganda was one of the founder members of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963 (today the African Union) and one of the three founder members of the East African Community in 1967.

The party during its second period in office, 1980-1985 built over 150 secondary schools in every county in Uganda and many of these schools, at the time nicknamed “Third World Schools” are today some of the leading schools in the areas in which they were established.

Even though the party today has the image of a political organization stuck in the 1960s, it was actually the first political party in Uganda to create a website. The website, at upcparty.net contains some of the most valuable historical documents in the country.

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