Jacob Oulanyah stormed Parliament like a movie star and left all at Parliament stunned!
Oulanyah told those who were disturbed by his flashy entrance that he is a bike rider.
The deputy speaker stormed Parliament in a high maintenance bike followed by his motorcade.
Oulanyah who has been away most of the Covid-19 debate in Parliament capped his entrance donning causally.
He wore a jacket with a half sweater, pair of blue jeans and matching with pair of army boots.
The deputy speaker was at Parliament to attend a commission meeting according to the noticeboard.
Oulanyah arrived at Parliament at a time when the house was dealing with an angry population over the Shs 10Bn the house allocated themselves to help Covid-19 national task force.
It was the week that had the head of state lambasting Parliament for being ‘morally reprehensible’.
President Yoweri Museveni blasted during his address to the nation: “It is morally reprehensible for MPs to give themselves money for personal use when the country is in such a crisis; totally unacceptable to me and the NRM. They have entered themselves into a trap and the best way out is to donate the money to the districts where they come from.”
Oulanyah did not equally do justice for himself with MPs when he returned the Shs20Bn sent to his accounts.
MPs did not expect him to take a divergent position after the heat they were being subjected by the public and the head of state.
MP after another took to the floor last Thursday during the plenary to demand respect for the house.
Kiira Municipality MP, Ibrahim SSemujju Nganda said that the attack on the House by the President on the money allocated to Parliament for Covid-19, was unacceptable.
Ssemujju said: “If we allow the Head of State to start ordering me around like a shamber boy, tomorrow he will order me to donate my salary to a priest in my constituency. I will move formally that the Executive apologies to the House for what happened last week.”
Ssewungu Gonzaga backed Ssemujju by stating: “Let us fight this kind of situation. I was surprised that the ministry of finance and planning Minister Matia Kasaija was denying knowledge of the allocation of Shs10 Billion and yet he went ahead and said he had bought food for his constituency.”
Some legislators felt Oulanyah had disrespected the house he leads by defiantly going against what had been agreed on the floor of the house.
They felt he had gone against the speaker’s position by returning the money. Speaker had clearly spelled out what the money was going to do.
Award winning journalist and writer who has worked as a stringer for a couple of acclaimed South Africa based German journalists, covered 3 Ugandan elections, 2008 Kenya election crisis, with interests in business and sports reporting.
