Following hours of interfacing with candidates that had expressed interest in the position of Speaker of Parliament, the Central Executive Committee (CEC) which is the top NRM organ of the ruling party resolved to give the flag to Deputy Speaker incumbent Anita Among.
According to sources with knowledge about what happened during the Wednesday meeting, Among was not the strongest contender for the race to replace deceased Speaker Jacob Oulanyah and indeed the CEC expressed themselves on the matter with the likes of Jackson Kafuuzi (Deputy Attorney General), Jacob Oboth Oboth (Defence Minister) coming ahead in the pecking order.
The CEC was looking for a combination of things in their preferred candidate, legal experience, House experience, general loyalty to the executive, and party cadreship.
Oboth was ahead of all of them in terms of experience, having been in the August House for 11 years but on the other side, Among was considered a dwarf of the three top contenders for the position of Speaker in terms of understanding the law.
However, they were presented with a hard scenario on cadreship as Among and Oboth in this case are recent entrants to the party with the latter actually on an independent ticket to parliament at the moment.
The CEC was therefore stuck with the two candidates hence the subject of loyalty was deferred to the previous works where Among would score highly owing to the fact that she has steered the House to pass a number of vital bills in favor of the government’s agenda during Speaker Oulanyah’s absence.
The matter of cohesion was also expressed in detail, with members agreeing that Among had indeed gelled with key offices like the Prime Minister and the Chief Whip which was key for continuity of government business.
Among told the meeting that she had created a good rapport with the Prime Minister and the Chief Whip. Prime Minister, Robinah Nabbanja was there to bear witness whereas Tayebwa was called to confirm Among’s assertions.
With all the checks exploited, CEC looked at ensuring continuity but also the need to uphold the precedence set through Ssekandi, Kadaga, and Oulanyah where the deputies have been elevated to become Speaker.
“Having noted that the NRM party has established a culture and practice of elevating the Deputy Speaker to the position of Speaker, even when there has not been any disruption and now even more when there is an emergency, CEC endorses Among Anita Annet for the position of Speaker of the 11th parliament," CEC said in a statement released on Wednesday evening.
CEC was aware Among had plan B
Sources who attended the meeting said the Central Executive Committee was privy to details from a group of Members of Parliament who had convinced Among to rebel against the decision had it not gone in her favor.
These MPs had expressed their willingness to vote for her as an independent candidate for the Speakership position.
The same group had tried to stop the nomination process of the Speaker after they matched to the NRM electoral commission headquarters chanting that the nominations should stop after Among had been nominated.
These were however overruled by the NRM electoral Commission chairperson, Dr. Tanga Odoi who instead of that the exercise had to go on until 5 pm as had been scheduled.
In the background, Among had gathered a whole legion of MPs at a hotel in Kampala led by Kazo County’s Dan Kimosho and Bukooli Central’s Solomon Silwany who were vowing to go against the CEC decision should it fail to reflect their interests.
“We shall go independent like Kadaga and bring the vote to the House,” an MP in the camp who spoke to Nile Post on condition of anonymity said.
With the CEC privy to these details, they did not want to further escalate the situation in the midst of mourning for Oulanyah by creating another Kadaga-like scenario hence arriving at the decision to let sanity prevail.
In the previous election for speaker, Kadaga almost caused a shock when she went against the CEC decision and stood as an independent candidate against Oulanyah.
The party was torn between Kadaga’s loyalists and the caucus agenda with Museveni taking extra time off to personally call MPs to advise them from going against the party decision.
However, this time around, the top organ of the ruling party never waited for the situation to escalate to that point and consequently endorsed Among for the Speakership.