Omoro County MP Jacob Oulanyah and Bukedea woman MP Ms. Anita Among Annet will steer the 11th parliament as Speaker and Deputy Speaker setting a new era of leadership and ending iron lady Rebacca Alitwala Kadaga’s reign at the top of Uganda’s legislature .
With strong backing from their party and presence of President Yoweri Museveni at the polling venue, Kadaga had no chance of sailing through with Oulanyah beating her with an overwhelming majority of 310 votes . Kadaga got 197 largely from the opposition and independent MPs.
Oulanyah who has been deputy Speaker for 10 years will now be in charge of affairs at the August House for the next five years, a position he missed out narrowly after stepping down for Kadaga on advice of the Central Executive Committee, the ruling NRM party’s top organ in 2016.
On Sunday, CEC endorsed Oulanyah to come unopposed as the party flag bearer but Kadaga decided to stand on the independent ticket.
National Resistance Movement (NRM) chairman and President Yoweri Museveni was present to witness the voting process.
Among registered a landslide to become Deputy Speaker after she polled 415 votes to beat her opponents Mawokota South MP Yusuf Nsibambi (FDC) 35 votes and Muhammed Nsereko Kampala Central (Independent) 24 votes.
Both Oulanyah and Among were Sunday endorsed by the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) CEC and Parliamentary caucus.
“We should agree that no view will be suppressed. All views will be received with tolerance and given fair treatment based on known facts and reason. We must pledge to overrule intolerance,” Oulanyah said after being sworn- in.
Among , said that she will work to bridge the gap between the ruling NRM and the opposition by promoting equal opportunities for the MPs and all Ugandans.
Museveni Explains how Oulanyah , Among won
Explaining how he managed to rally all the party MPs to vote for Oulanyah and Among , President Museveni said , ““My people were terribly divided,” Museveni said as he delved into how he shortchanged Kadaga’s supporters. “Subsequently, I rang a number of them late in the night, others I met physically… you saw how a guerilla works… I called them, telling them that, “You have been with Kadaga but now Oulanyah is the official candidate.” I called the others in the morning [moments before the elections]. They had formed factions but you know factions can sometimes be subversive. There was a very strong faction for Kadaga and then a faction for Oulanyah.”
In doing all this, Museveni was worried that the pro-Kadaga group was planning a revolt in the party. Kadaga had formed an alliance with Thomas Tayebwa (Ruhinda North) who lost the NRM caucus vote to Anita Among (Bukedea Woman) with a small margin.
Oulanyah (55) is a lawyer and Anita Among, 47, is, an accountant, a lawyer (KIU) and politician.
