The top leadership of the National Resistance Movement-NRM has vowed that it will punish the former Speaker of 10th Parliament Rebecca Kadaga if she refuses to call off her intentions of contesting for Speakership as an independent.
On Sunday the Kamuli District woman MP revealed that she will go ahead and contest as independent for the 11th parliament speakership despite losing party candidacy.
Her decision follows NRM Central Executive Committee (CEC)’s endorsement of Jacob Oulanyah as the party preferred choice for Speaker at her expense.
After the party declared Oulanyah, Kadaga held a press conference and cautioned that she was not ready to bow out of the race.
“Fellow Ugandans, I have come to inform the people of Uganda that my party has opted not to give me the party flag for Speaker of Parliament. I have therefore decided to run as an independent,” said Kadaga.
According to her, there has been many attempts to eject her from the party leadership.
“During the CEC elections last year there was tremendous State interference and intimidation but I won the contest of CEC national vice-chair,” she said.
“Today I was not given an opportunity to present myself to the electorates and the major reason I have been pushed out is because of speaking on the issues of the ordinary people. I want to tell you that I will continue speaking about those issues.”
However according to Rogers Mulindwa the senior manager in charge of Information, Communication and Public Relations in NRM, Kadaga is among the top three leaders in the party therefore she has to agree with what the party decided.
He also cautioned her that she will by all means lose and the party has given her hours up to 09:00 am to decide her fate. He explained that if Kadaga refuses to step down, she will face the laws of the party for the decision she made which has humiliated the NRM.
“We expect her to turn down that decision before the final hours because her move to stand as an independent will divide the party, of course, she will lose but it will leave a lot of damages. If she refuses to step down, she will be punished,” he said.
The voting for the speaker/Deputy Speaker will take place at Kololo independence grounds at 10:00am today and it will be presided over by Chief Justice Alfonso Owiny Dollo.
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