Museveni’s candidate, Sam Engola Jr, fails to clinch slain father’s MP seat
Despite Uganda President Yoweri Museveni heavily campaigning for him in the Oyam North Parliamentary by-election held yesterday, Sam Engola Junior lost the race to Dr Eunice Otuko Apio.
“…he made me like a god. Therefore, for me, I have no hesitation in recommending Samuel Engola to you. Okello (the late) had worked so well for the country. I saw him first time in 1986 in Lubiri when it was still a barracks… From the beginning we were telling you that we are here for your good. I’m not here looking for anything because I have goats, everything in my home. I have my cows, everything in my home. I am not looking for anything from the government,” said President Museveni two days ago.
Following the event, Engola Junior thanked the National Resistance Movement for their support and helping him; exuding confidence that victory was on his side. However, following the by-election, he lost. Dr Eunice Otuko won with 15,718, beating Mr Engola who garnered 15,176 votes, all cast in 167 polling stations. The voter turn out was low considering there are 93,733 voters registered in the Constituency.
Engola Junior hoped to succeed his late father, Charles Okello Engola, who was killed by his VIP bodyguard on May 2, 2023, at his home in a Kampala Subarb.
“He (Engola) was shot at his residence in Kyanja by one of his bodyguards who allegedly fired several shots at close range. He fled from the scene up to the trading center at Kyanja, Ring Road where he entered a salon and also shot himself dead,” police spokesperson, Fred Enanga told journalists in Kampala.
According to the Monitor, an eyewitness had claimed that the bodyguard complained that the slain minister owed him several months of unpaid salary as he shot in the air to warn civilians at Kyanja town, moments before turning the gun on himself.
The late Engola first vied in Oyam North Constituency in 2006 on an NRM ticket and won. He subsequently went ahead to get re-elected in 2011 for another five years. On June 6, 2016, he was named to the Cabinet as Minister for Defense before he was appointed State Minister for Labor, Employment and Industrial Relations.
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