The past two weeks have been tough for Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga as the general public, the executive and judiciary ganged up against the legislature in condemnation of the manner in which Shs10bn Covid19 allocation for MPs was sneaked through during the passing of the Coronavirus supplementary budget.
Thursday evening, Kadaga called an emergency press conference to tell the public to stop demonizing her and Parliament over a paltry Shs10bn, but to look at other offices like the President’s and Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) which got billions to buy relief food items for the vulnerable poor in Kampala and Wakiso but ended up buying rotten beans.
While Kadaga has been struggling to defend the controversial package, her deputy Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah has been silent, only coming out of his hideout hours after the Speaker hit at the Judiciary and the Executive. But even then, Oulanyah restricted his response to symbolism. He posted a dark square on his social media pages, perhaps to express his disdain of the darkness Kadaga’s mismanagement of the crisis had ushered into Parliament. If that is what Oulanyah wanted to communicate, then his message might have reached the relevant office.
But what is clear from his actions (and reactions) since Kadaga invited members of the press to help her communicate her anger at the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice is that he disapproves of the manner in which the money was allocated and how his boss attempted to defend an illegality.
The Deputy Speaker, also the Omoro County MP, had waited to see how the situation would unfold before he could touch the Shs20m wired to each member’s bank account. He had carefully weighed the guidelines that had been issued by the Parliamentary Commission on how the money should be used. Those who thought it was an illegal allocation were free to return it to the Commission’s Bank of Uganda account (it would in the end be sent to their districts’ taskforces) while those who wanted it were supposed to work with their districts to find the appropriate ways to spend it, not forgetting that they would need to account to the Chief Administrative Officers (CAOs).
Oulanyah’s decision regarding the cash came after two things had happened: President Museveni’s public disapproval of the allocation which he called a trap in his Tuesday night address, and Kadaga’s verbal reprisal at the Presidency Thursday evening.
On Friday, he handed over the money to Omoro District Covid19 Taskforce at Lalogi HC IV. He said he had returned the Shs20m “in line with and respect to the directive given by H.E Yoweri Kaguta Museveni and guidance by Parliament.”
“The money was sent directly to my account I was then guided by both the President and Parliament on how to apply the money. It was never my money. I have done just that,” he emphasized when further asked if he would have returned the cash had the public and the president not made noise about it.
To further assure his detractors that he was neither corrupt nor broke, Oulanyah made a contribution of Shs20m to support the repair of several faulty boreholes in Omoro district.
But behind his silence and calculative moves, Oulanyah seems to be plotting to position himself as the next Speaker of House. It should be remembered that Kadaga had most of the times been assigning controversial bills and other contentious debates to her deputy. But this time, Oulanyah was lucky; otherwise he would be the one in the hot seat.
And the fact that the Covid money scandal is happening months before elections seems to favour Oulanyah’s bid for speakership. Kadaga’s clash with the executive is closely being watched by the key National Resistance Movement (NRM) organs like the Central Executive Committee (CEC) which convinced Oulanyah to drop his bid against Kadaga in the previous race for Speaker. Oulanyah had been told to wait for his turn in the interest of harmony in the party.
A former member of the Uganda People’s Congress (UPC), Oulanyah has been seen to be more loyal to the NRM and President Museveni, winning support for the party in his home region. And with Kadaga seemingly annoying the President, it won’t be a huge surprise if Museveni, the NRM Chairman, pushes Kadaga out through the party structures, denying her the party’s flag and rallying behind key members of the party and elected MPs to see to it that Kadaga doesn’t keep at the helm of the legislative arm of government.
Once that is done, Museveni might find Oulanyah a fitting replacement for the seat occupied by the Kamuli Woman MP who seems to be giving the executive and judicial arms of government headache. But while the Kadaga’s woes might be a blessing for Oulanyah, he might have to first agree to keep doing the big man’s bidding before he can win his support, and consequently, that of other party and government leaders.
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