Daily Monitor
Sunday April 04 2021
Summary
Going back home via Station Road as I came within Mahanga Primary School to my right, next to Mahanga Secondary School, among the many foundations of UPC of the early 1980s.
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Last week, I had reason to take a ride to Nagongera, Tororo. Abode were two young, beautiful ladies. One was an aspiring economist pending A-Levels and the other, a graduate of Economics and Statistics. As we broke the neck of Kampala traffic after Mukono, I asked if they knew that Uganda ever had passenger trains. The former had no idea. The latter – now a young mother – mildly had but for her age, she missed seeing one.
Daily Monitor
Sunday December 13 2020
Exactly 40 years ago this week, Uganda held the first multi-party elections after getting rid of Idi Amin and, the last free and democratic elections where political parties freely competed with no incumbent occupying and controlling privileges of State by force.
The elections, held on December 10, 1980, saw Uganda Peoples Congress return with massive majority of 61 per cent.
In those elections, Uganda Patriotic Movement (UPM), the parent organisation of NRA-NRM, won only one parliamentary seat out of a possible 126 and its leader, Yoweri Museveni, lost in Mbarara North, won by DP’s Sam Kutesa. UPC came second.
During elections, Mr Museveni freely campaigned around the country without being whipped or tear-gassed, nor did families lose loved ones.