Just a day when the remains of one of the Ministers in Obote’s regime have been cleared to be bought back to Uganda, another memory of President Milton Obote leaves us too.
The only surviving brother of the former President, Obadiah Akaki breathed his last at the age of 96 in Akokoro, Apac district.
Lira Municipality MP, Jimmy Akena Obote confirmed the death of his uncle who was a great friend to President Museveni, and an ardent supporter of the ruling party NRM.
“My 96+ year uncles Obadiah Akaki passed away in the early hours of this morning from his home in Akokoro. Funeral arrangements will be communicated later,” Akena said.
Obote died on October 10, 2005, of kidney failure in a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, where he had been admitted and he was buried at his home in Akokoro. Obote had spent many years in exile in Zambia from where he was moved to South Africa for medication.
Akena explained that the family was yet to converge and come up with burial arrangements, adding that they were working on the programme. “We will decide the burial date after we have converged as a family.”
While Obote loathed President Yoweri Museveni, Akaki supported him and he has on several occasions campaigned for him in Lango sub-region. In 2004, while Obote was still in exile in Zambia, he claimed that Museveni had killed their father, Stanley Opeto. However, Akaki dismissed the claims as untrue.
Akaki then told journalists from his home in Akokoro that their father was strangled in 1987 by Karimojong cattle rustlers and buried in a three-feet deep grave. Akaki said Opeto’s grandson, Johnson Onapa, told them that he witnessed the murder from a tree where he was hiding.
“It is not true that Museveni killed our father. He should stop tarnishing the image of the president,” Akaki said in response to Obote’s claims.
Later, Akaki asked President Museveni to renovate Obote’s house in Lira town, which was formerly occupied by UPDF soldiers, and the house has since been renovated. Several family friends took to social media to eulogise Akaki, whom they described as a calm and peace-loving person.
“Akaki lived a very quiet and humble life. You could not know that he was even a brother to a President, even when Obote was still in power,” said a family friend, who only identified himself as Ogwang.
According to Ogwang, Akaki disliked conflicts in the society, and in Akokoro, stories are told of how residents would go to him instead of going to the Local Council to help them resolve their conflicts.