Outgoing deputy speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah has made it clear to his rival Rebecca Kadaga that he won’t quit the speaker race.
In 2016, Oulanyah stepped down for Kadaga after the ruling NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) agreed to the Kamuli Woman MP’s argument that she should be allowed to be Speaker for a decade like her predecessor Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi.
When he talked to reporters after taking oath as Omoro County MP in the 11th Parliament, Oulanyah told reporters he was yet to start campaigning, suggesting he was not panicking.
Ahead of a crucial weekend where CEC and the NRM parliamentary caucus are expected to come up with a candidate between Kadaga and her deputy for 10 years, Oulanyah sounded and appeared confident.
Although the 2016 decision that saw Oulanyah step down for Kadaga is largely informal and not binding (at least according to the outgoing speaker), there are reports that NRM chairman President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni could convince the party’s top organ to reward Oulanyah, who even helped NRM win northern Uganda compared to Kadaga’s Busoga where Bobi Wine’s NUP ate into the president’s votes.
Oulanyah termed the day he swore in for another parliamentary terms as “the beginning of another journey… A journey in which we must achieve a few things; more focus on improving service delivery and the over all goal of achieving social economic transformation of our people.”
He also made it clear cleaning Parliament’s image, and restoring public confidence in the institution would be top of his agenda.
VIDEO: Jacob Oulanyah reveals his ‘Plan B’ if he loses speaker election to Kadaga on May 24
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