Lira, Uganda | Dokolo South MP Felix Okot Ogong has called for the construction of a monument to honour 23 young men of the Amuka militia who were killed during a battle in Gulgoi at the height of the insurgency in northern Uganda.
Speaking on the Yite Twolo show on Q FM Lira on Wednesday, Okot Ogong said the fallen fighters were part of the Amuka militia—an auxiliary force he mobilised in Lango to support the Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) in the fight against the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).
“We lost 23 young men in Gulgoi. These were brave sons of Lango who stood up to defend their people. They deserve to be remembered with a monument in their honour,” Okot Ogong said.
The Amuka militia was formed in the early 2000s as community defence groups to counter LRA atrocities in the Lango sub-region.
Okot Ogong, a member of the National Resistance Movement (NRM), lost the recent general election for the Dokolo South parliamentary seat. His term in Parliament runs until May 2026.
During the radio interview hosted by James Omara Elem and Paul Odom Aryam, Okot Ogong also addressed his past political relationship with President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and his exit from Cabinet in 2006, where he had served as State Minister for Children Affairs.
“I was very close to the President, and as Vice Chairperson of the parliamentary caucus, I could access him at any time. But during the campaigns, I told him the bitter truth,” Okot Ogong said, without elaborating on the specifics of their disagreement.
He did not directly confirm whether his removal from Cabinet was linked to the fallout.
Okot Ogong revealed that in 1996, he was among a group of Lango leaders who welcomed Democratic Party presidential candidate Paul Ssemogerere to the region—an action that reportedly displeased the late former President Apollo Milton Obote.
“A meeting was summoned at Uganda House, and the late Cecilia Ogwal pulled out a letter indicating that Obote had dismissed her from the party. Myself, Daniel Omara Atubo, and the late Okullo Epak had to find a way forward. In 1998, I decided to join the NRM,” Okot Ogong said.
He also recalled that in 1993, he had intended to contest for a Constituent Assembly position during the drafting of Uganda’s 1995 Constitution but stepped down on the advice of the late Rev Opollo Apello, who chaired the then Ad Hoc Committee, in favour of Dick Odur.
“In 1996, I contested and succeeded in returning to Parliament as MP representing Dokolo,” Okot Ogong said.
Born in 1965 in Abei Village, Kwera Sub-county, to Mzee Neri Ogong and Pasqualina Ogong, Okot Ogong attended Karadali Nursery School in Lira City, Kwera Primary School and VH Primary School before joining Lango College for his secondary education in 1981.
He later graduated from Makerere University with a degree in Economics and Geography.
Although he initially anticipated employment in the Ministry of Finance, Okot Ogong ventured into business and founded Feliesta Pharmacy in 1990.
