Uganda’s former High Commissioner to Canada, Joy Ruth Aceng, has declared her intention to contest for the Kole Woman Member of Parliament seat in the upcoming 2026 general elections. Her return to the political stage comes under the banner of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), a party she says she has never abandoned.
Aceng’s political comeback follows a turbulent diplomatic chapter. In August 2024, the Canadian government expelled her, citing a breach of diplomatic protocol. Ottawa declared her persona non grata — a term used under Article 9 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that allows a host country to expel a foreign envoy without the need to publicly justify the decision.
While the details of the allegations remain unclear, Aceng maintains she was fulfilling her duties in service of the Ugandan state, not acting in contravention of diplomatic expectations. “I defended my country,” she said. “My service in Canada was national duty — not a betrayal of my party.”
On Thursday, 15 May, she appeared alongside UPC party leaders at a mobilisation event in Kole District. There, she made her intentions clear: to reclaim the seat she once held as the district’s Woman MP.
Aceng served under President Yoweri Museveni’s administration for seven years in a diplomatic capacity, but she has dismissed suggestions that she ever joined the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party. “I never crossed to NRM,” she told supporters. “I have always been UPC.”
She now faces a contest within her party, vying for the UPC ticket against Joy Atim Ongom, a former Lira Woman MP, and Janet Auma Okullo, who failed to secure victory in the previous election cycle.
UPC party president Jimmy Akena, the son of UPC’s founder and former Ugandan President Milton Obote, welcomed Aceng’s return. He pledged impartiality in the party primaries and vowed to support whoever emerges as the flagbearer.
Speaking to party faithful, Akena reiterated his intention to stand for the presidency in 2026, describing the coming election as a turning point for the country. “This is the time for change that Uganda has been waiting for,” he declared, urging fellow party members to put the interests of the people above personal ambition.
As UPC seeks to regain lost political ground, Aceng’s re-entry signals not only an internal contest but also a broader attempt to reenergise the party’s presence in northern Uganda — a region once central to its power base.
