Betty Ongom Amongi, the minister for Kampala, has claimed that over 60 per cent of ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) MPs want Jacob Oulanyah as speaker of Parliament, urging Rebecca Kadaga to accept vice president job.
Kadaga and her deputy Oulanyah, both of the NRM party, have expressed interest in the speaker job.
Oulanyah has deputized Kadaga for 10 years.
The NRM is sharply divided over who to back.
In 2016, Oulanyah, reportedly on NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC) prompting, stood down to allow Kadaga serve two terms as she had requested.
But recently, when government chief whip Ruth Nankabirwa reminded Kadaga of this ‘agreement,’ the speaker ruled that a 2016 NRM CEC decision was not binding on the House in a democratic society.
CEC is yet to meet to resolve the stand off between Kadaga and Oulanyah.
Vice chairperson for Buganda Godfrey Kiwanda recently assured party members the NRM will have one candidate in the race for speaker.
Now, another minister says Oulanyah is more popular than Kadaga among NRM MPs.
Amongi, whose husband Jimmy Akena is Uganda People’s Congress (UPC) president, has since advised Kadaga to accept the vice president job — just like her predecessor Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi.
Kadaga had been Ssekandi’s deputy.
With Ssekandi serving 10 years as vice president and losing in the January 14 parliamentary elections, Amongi thinks the VP slot is vacant.
“Kadaga can now move upwards after 20 years of Speakership [as deputy and deputy speaker]. Kadaga should move to the next slot. The Vice President slot is still empty,” Amongi told NBS Morning Breeze on March 17.
“I want Kadaga to go to the second most important position in this country, the Vice President.”
She added that most of Oulanyah’s supporters are willing to obey NRM chairman President Yoweri Kaguta Tibuhaburwa Museveni and CEC’s guidance on who should be speaker.
“Over 60% of the NRM MPs I talked to supporting Jacob Oulanyah are asking for the position of President and CEC,” continued Amongi.
Amongi, also the Oyam South MP, belongs to the Lango Parliamentary Group that recently endorsed Oulanyah.
“We are supporting Hon. Jacob Oulanyah because of those characters not because he is from the North.”
