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Despite the political upheavals the Democratic Party (DP) has endured over the last 70 years, Mzee Henry Bazira Ssewanyana has remained among the key party figures still representing the values of Uganda’s oldest political party.

Sharing his decorated political journey, Mzee Ssemwanyana recalls a baffling moment that required him to make a heroic decision, which was to reject an offer to become a minister during Gen Tito Okello- Lutwa’s broad-based government and later President Museveni’s first cabinet and opted for rallying people to fight household poverty.

Mzee Ssewanyana, who witnessed the formation of DP in 1954 and joined it the same year, rose through the party ranks to become a political assistant to the party president, the late Paul Kawanga Ssemogerere, and a Member of Parliament for Masaka South-West in present-day Lwengo District ( 1980-1985).

He recounts his period in Parliament as the toughest political experience in his life. “It was very hard, but we had to take that route, entering Parliament as Opposition yet we had defeated Uganda People’s Congress (UPC). Obote stole our victory during the December 10, 1980 elections but we just chose not to shed blood to get political power,” he says.

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