St Joseph’s College Layibi (aka Leysco) debating club last week hammered Gulu High Senior Secondary School during the final of a three month interschool district debating tournament which was held at Gulu district council hall.

The tournament is organised by Invisible Children (IC) to “enhance public speech” among students in the district and was initiated in the 1990s with the pioneering schools being Sir Samuel Barker, Layibi College, Gulu High school and Gulu Central High School.

Of course the rivalries between these schools are known and go way back, especially when it comes to football tournaments, the worst recorded incident being a football match in which 25 people were injured and taken to Gulu regional referral hospital when police were called and used teargas to disperse supporters when Sir Samuel Barker lost to Gulu High in 2002; bringing business to standstill in Gulu town.

In the debating tournament, Layibi scoped 644 points while Gulu high got 636.  The lead person on the panel of Judges Mr Komakech Robert, a former secondary school English teacher announced that the best speaker was Bongowat Richard Luganya from Gulu High School who scored 96%. 

Tommy Otto the Program Officer for the Legacy Scholarship Program under Invisible Children said that the debate was organised with the aim of mentoring young students into being responsible citizens and applauded the topic which was “Democracy is impracticable in our contemporary society.”

“This is to create peace in the schools and you see how they were greeting each other after the result was announced, we always want fair play,” Tommy said.