Photos! Akena Full Text as UPC celebrates 63 years

Uganda Peoples Congress celebrates 63 years today. #WhisperEyeNews

On 9th March 2023, Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) marked her 63rd birthday. It is at this point that the Party takes great reflection from the time of the founding of both Uganda National Congress (UNC) in 1952 that later merged with Uganda Peoples Union (UPU) to give birth to Uganda Peoples Congress (UPC) on the 9^th March 1960.

UPC continued with the core values of UNC and on 9th October 1962, delivered Uganda to Independence. We acknowledge the contribution of heroes such as Ignatius Kangave Musaazi of UNC, and W. W. Rwetsiba of UPU.

Our founding Father, Dr. Apolo Milton Obote in his paper titled UPC BIRTHDAY, THE ROLE OF THE UPC IN UGANDA’S INDEPENDENCE, summarized saying, “on 9^th October, the Duke of Kent representing his cousin, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II handed the Instruments of Independence to me, the President”. To UPC and Uganda, that was great sacrifice, commitment and achievement, but the long journey for the post-independence struggle had just started.

On the domestic scene, the Party Policy Statement (Manifesto) of March 1962 gave a direction to the Party and its Government, which has underpinned certain aspects of Uganda’s post-independence journey now at 61 years (of Uhuru), “The Party’s belief in a Welfare State doctrine so as to accelerate greater development in the realization of such necessities like free education, free medical care, maximum employment and adequate food supply” are still very much wanting, including basic needs such as shelter.

Universal Primary Education (UPE) was introduced in 1997 followed by Universal Secondary Education (USE) in 2007. However, due to underfunding by Government; the objective of availing quality education to everyone, everywhere in Uganda cannot be realized and therefore parents with financial muscle have opted for private schools in the quest for better education services for their children while poorer families are at the mercy of God! Government should think about that comprehensively.

The provision of decent public medical care is still a pipe dream as most of government health facilities lack sufficient medicine and insufficient medical staff, whom at times go for long periods without being adequately remunerated even though the overall ratio of medical personnel to patients is still low. Quality social services like health, education and public transport are some of the important areas that any government should place emphasis and take as a top priority.

• The Party is in the final stages of its preparations for holding its National Council whereby members are expected to debate and come up with workable propositions to tackle the underlying reasons for Youth unemployment and underemployment; Labour export; Food Security; Uganda’s comparative advantage in agriculture amongst others in line with the UPC Constitutional provision Art. 2.2.5 which states; “to plan Uganda’s economic development is such a way that the public sector, private sector, workers, peasants and farmers, through the cooperative movement, commerce and industry will effectively contribute to increased production and wealth thus raising people’s welfare and the standard of living in the country”.
• The National Council will also, amongst other business receive, consider and adopt several Policy Documents such as the;
• Strategic Plan,
• Gender Policy,
• Women League Charter,
• Youth League Charter,
• Youth Strategic Plan,
• Sexual Harassment Policy,
• Human Resource Manual,
• Accounting and Financial Policy,
• Code of Conduct,
• Rules and Procedure of the Disciplinary Committee,
• Administrative Structure.

• In preparation for this most important National Council meeting, Members of the National Council should expect their official communication in due course. As we commemorate and honour the great contribution of the Uganda Peoples Congress let us organize and prepare to emulate our forebearers in both word and deed, as we organize the Party to play its role in serving the interests of the people of Uganda.

For God and My Country

J. Akena MP

President