2.5 bn budget set aside
The Minister for Presidency Milly Babalanda has defended a 2.5 billion shilling budget injected by the government of Uganda towards burial arrangements for the deceased Speaker of Parliament.
The lifeless body of the late Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah will touch ground at the Entebbe International Airport on Friday this week via the Ethiopian airlines.
Babalanda is asking the public not to scrutinize the budget but instead focus on the activities and the status of the Person of the Speaker.
In a tweet on Tuesday morning she wrote; “Regarding the budget for burying Rt. Hon. Oulanyah, what matters is not the figures but the activities involved and status of the deceased. Let us avoid traumatizing the family in this trying time,” She stated.
2.5 bn budget set aside
The tentative budget has listed how the figures will be distributed for the entire burial process, starting from when the body arrives.
According to the Parliamentary rules of procedure,Part D of the Parliamentary Pensions Act indicates that thirty percent of the annual emoluments of the Speaker of Parliament will go towards his burial expense.
Parliamentary rules also provide that all flags in Uganda be flown at half-mast at all public buildings and public grounds during the mourning period of the Speaker of Parliament.
It should be remembered that the government spent 1.7 billion shillings on his flight abroad on an Airbus A330-800 was chartered from Uganda Airlines. On February 04, 2022, he was flown via Iceland to Seattle, in the United States, for treatment of an unspecified illness.
Former Speaker Oulanyah was pronounced dead on March 20, 2022, in Seattle. His death was announced by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, on Museveni’s Twitter account.
He last presided over Parliament on 21 December 2021. He was elected to that position on 24 May 2021. He served as Deputy Speaker of the Ugandan parliament, from May 2011 until May 2021.
