Mama Miria Excties Mubende
From NEW VISION January 21, 2006
By Apollo Mubiru and Geresom Musamali

Residents cheer Miria Obote as she delivers her speech in Mubende town
UGANDA People�s Congress (UPC) presidential candidate Miria Kalule Obote launched her campaign in the Buganda region on Thursday, with a rally at Kasambya, Mubende district.
However, some people who turned up for the rally at Kasambya abandoned it after a green military pick-up truck, DOIDF 004, with nine soldiers atop drove past. Miria did not comment on the incident.
A fleeing woman said she feared the soldiers would cane her for attending the rally.
The Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA), under the UPC government of 1980-85, fought the National Resistance Army (NRA) in Mubende, a part of the Luweero Triangle.
Miria criticised the symbols for the other parties as she explained the meaning of her party�s open-palm symbol. This was after some people flushed the NRM and FDC symbols.
�When I come to you, I come with an open hand. When you are greeting your friend, you use the palm. It is a sign of peace,� Miria said.
She described the NRM �thumb-up� sign as a symbol for war.
�What I know about the thumb is that it is used for killing fleas, bedbugs and lice. You cannot use the thumb to reconcile with anybody you wronged. Because it is a symbol for war, that is why the northern war has not ended,� she said.
�Others will come with a V (the FDC symbol of two fingers). That is just a makansi (pair of scissors). A makansi can only cut, kata kata kata, but it cannot sew back the cloth,� she said.
On the Democratic Party symbol, she said, �Some people come waving a fist at you. We are not interested in fighting each other.�
At Mubende Market, huge crowds turned up to listen to her. Police struggled to keep the audience away from the podium in the fully-packed market square.
She appealed to people, especially the women, to vote for her.
�Fellow women, I am a mother like you. This is the only chance you have to vote for a woman president who will have your problems at heart because nowadays, there are many widows and orphans who need to be assisted,� she explained.
On her way back to Kampala, Miria excited roadside sellers at Biwanga by buying their mangoes.
She later addressed a mini-rally at Kiganda Market at 6:33pm, and at Kigalama at 7:00pm.