Oulanyah was a hard worker, says Kadaga

The former Speaker of Parliament and current First Deputy Prime Minister, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga has  described his successor , Jacob Oulanyah as a hard working speaker.

Kadaga and Oulanyah are reported to have been at loggerheads in their last term of office as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of parliament respectively.

Indeed, the two would later tussle it out for the position of the speaker with Kadaga arguing that Oulanyah had been shying away from responsibility of chairing the House whenever controversial matters came up.

Oulanyah on the other hand accused Kadaga of side-lining him and undermining a mutual agreement in which she indicated she would give him space to become speaker when her ten-year term finally finishes.

However, while eulogising Oulanyah during a special session in parliament on Tuesday morning, Kadaga maintained that she enjoyed a good working relationship with the deceased while she was at the helm.

She also said that she  had not known about Oulanyah's  sickness until she found out “mistakenly”.

“In 2019, I realised Oulanyah was not well, I was looking for him as the House was going for Christmas recess and there were some items I wanted on the order paper like the motion on the new cities,” Kadaga said.

Kadaga said parliament needed the new cities for the budget framework and also ensure the Electoral Commission would have opportunity to demarcate the constituencies in good time.

Oulanyah was the right man to help conjecture the views of the House on this subject having chaired it before  when the motion was tabled on new cities. As such Kadaga set out to find him.

“I found him,” she said.

“However, he told me that he was not well. He said he had just been operated on. I asked which operation and he said it was an appendix operation,” Kadaga added.

She said that three days later, Oulanyah sent her office notice that he was traveling out of the country and he would not explain why.

“On  December, 29,  2021, he said he had come back but he wanted to go out again. He came back, worked for a few days. Then I got another letter and he said he was going to Germany to visit all federal states of Germany. I was puzzled why he should spend six weeks in Germany, he did not answer but days later he had left,” Kadaga narrated to the House.

She said Oulanyah came back and worked a bit but he again requested to go out of the country.

“It is at this point that I went to see the President and tell him that there was something wrong with Oulanyah. I realised he could have been undergoing something he was not free to mention. All along he had been ill,” she said.

Kadaga however noted that despite having the illness, Oulanyah was hard working and could attend to parliamentary business.

" Though he was struggling, he tried to fulfill the work of parliament."

Before Kadaga spoke, the Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng, revealed to the House that Oulanyah had in 2019 sought medical help in Germany after he got a swelling in the neck.

She said following tests and medical procedures, Oulanyah was diagnosed with cancer.