The Lango Cultural Foundation (LCF) has announced a new election period for the position of Lango Paramount Chief (Won Nyaci).
The poll is scheduled to take place in 2026. This is in accordance with the Foundation’s 2017 constitution.
The pronouncement was issued on Tuesday, December 23, 2025, by the Interim Lango Paramount Chief, Fredrick Ogwal Oyee, who also serves as Prime Minister of the Lango Cultural Foundation.
Oyee made the announcement while addressing the media at his residence in Senior Quarters, Lira City East Division.
The Acting Paramount Chief thanked the Government of Uganda under the leadership of President Yoweri Museveni Kaguta for honouring Lango and granting an official burial to the late legitimate Paramount Chief, Yosam Odur Ebill.
Chief Ebill passed away on November 10, 2025, at Lira University Teaching Hospital aged 99.aged 99.
The acting leader also used the occasion to deliver both a Christmas and an end-of-year message, calling for peaceful elections across the country.
He cited factors from other elections, such as those in Tanzania, and stated, “President Yoweri Museveni has done a great job for our people, so I’m calling on every Ugandan to be patriotic and love their country.”
Oyee also urged the people of Lango to support President Museveni in the upcoming national elections.
Despite the passing of the late head of the institution, he announced that other activities would continue to move forward. He promised to follow the legacy of the late Yosam Odur Ebill, noting that before his death, the foundation had been working with the Ministry of Health to reduce malaria deaths and early teenage pregnancy in the Lango sub-region.
The Speaker of the Lango Cultural Foundation, Laury Lawrence Ocen, in his statement, thanked journalists in the sub-region for their objective and wonderful work in delivering information.
Speaker Ocen also announced that while Yosam has passed on, the cultural foundation will push ahead. “We shall continue to keep the legacy that Muze [the late chief] left in supporting girl child education.
“We shall embrace that so that we totally stop child marriage amongst our children. Let us value education first for the children, then other things will follow,” he said.
He emphasised that Lango can progress if it cooperates with the ruling government, enabling many government programs to be provided. “Let us avoid political divisions,” he said. “The Lango Cultural Foundation is following its constitution.
“I want to make it very clear that we shall steer this institution well for the needs of the people of Lango until we have the fourth Paramount Chief to replace the late Yosam Odur Ebill.”
Jacob Ocen, the Publicity Secretary of the Lango Cultural Foundation, also stated that a fresh election for the Won Nyaci position will be held following the death of their father, Yosam Odur Ebill.
“I am sending this information to all clan leaders who wish to contest for this position, as the election will take place next year,” he said.
Like Oyee, Ocen urged the people of Lango to vote for President Yoweri Museveni Kaguta and the ruling government, noting that the late Yosam had advised them to love and work together with the government in power.
Ebii died leaving behind a disunited Lango community who have had to embrace two parallel cultural leadership.
A faction headed by Eng. Micheal Odongo Okune has always claimed to be legitimate as opposed to the High Court ruling early this year which ruled against his election to culturally lead Lango.
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The election of the next paramount chief is a welcome development. The acting Won Nyaci and his team should, however, not take sides when it comes to who the people of Lango should vote as the next president of Uganda. That is not their place.