Of Irish Soil and Ugandan Politics IAN CLARK

KAMPALA, Uganda — The patient crowd huddled around the shed — young and old, a mosaic of the Katwe slum — to hear the politician speak. They had seen his picture around town — how could anyone forget his face? — and now they had a chance to see him in action.

He railed against corruption and spoke passionately about water, latrines, paved roads.

And when he was finished, he cast a glance over the crowd, and cracking a grin he yelled out "Londa mzungu," which essentially translates as "Vote for the white guy!"

This short and spry politician, Ian Clarke, is trying to do the highly unusual, but he may very well succeed.

Outside of countries with large white minorities, like South Africa, few white people run for office in sub-Saharan Africa. And Mr. Clarke, 59, a family practice physician, with dual Irish and Ugandan citizenship, is running for local office in a hard-knocks neighborhood of Kampala, Uganda's capital, where raw sewage trickles down the street and infants root around in the garbage.

More