Former Speaker of Parliament Rebecca Kadaga will be contesting for Parliament Speakership on an independent ticket after being dumped by NRM’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) in favour of her nemesis Jacob Oulanyah as the right choice for the position.
On Sunday, CEC endorsed Oulanyah as the ruling party candidate for Speakership of the 11th Parliament.
The development came as a shock to Kadaga who has been Speaker for 10 years.
On Saturday, while at State House Entebbe, CEC failed to choose between Kadaga and Oulanyah until today when members conclusively decided to dump the former Speaker in favour of her former deputy.
The decision of CEC , which President Yoweri Museveni chairs in his capacity as NRM national chairman is important because it is likely to influence the choice of the ruling party’s caucus that sits today.
According to Mulengera news website, on Saturday while appearing before CEC for an interview, Kadaga told members that in case she does not make it as the party flag bearer, she will run as an independent.
In the same meeting, the Kamuli Woman MP also accused Oulanyah of being insubordinate and travelling too much. She also denied Oulanyah’s claims that she failed to deliver the Busoga vote for Gen Museveni against NUP’s Robert Kyagulanyi.
“She told CEC Basoga voters rejected Gen Museveni because they were protesting the brutality of Police and the military whose personnel she said tortured and kidnapped their children many of whom are still missing. Fearing the splitting of the party resulting from Kadaga coming as independent, some CEC members had suggested that Jacob Oboth-Oboth runs as the consensus candidate, something which the Kadaga camp had agreed to,” the local news website said.
“Being rejected by NRM simply means Kadaga will now qualify for the NUP support which had been conditioned on her being rejected by both NRM and Gen Museveni who many NUP Politburo members passionately hate.”
The election of Speaker/Deputy Speaker is slated for 24 May, 2021.
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