Uganda's Speaker of parliament denies her deputy chance to speaking during plenary

The Speaker of Uganda's parliament Rt. Hon Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga and
her deputy Rt. Hon Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah who was denied to speak during Plenary.

By Kawe Komugisha

Kampala, Uganda (RTN) The Speaker of Uganda's parliament Rt. Hon Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, on Wednesday shocked the country when she intentionally refused to give her deputy Rt. Hon Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah chance to speaking the plenary.

Interesting , the topic of discussion in a prior plenary session which he was denied to speak was on  his own act of handing over the money to his district task force.

This forced him to make an unexpected appearance in the session in order to clear his name. After his attempts to speak were ignored, the Deputy Speaker stormed out of parliament discontentedly.

Rt. Hon Oulanyah expressed his desire to seek an explanation as to why an informal motion reference had been made in his name, to journalists that caught up with him as he exited parliament. He also said that he had written to the Speaker concerning the same issue two weeks ago and received a response but no action had been taken.

The Speaker cited rules of procedure stating that only one speaker is meant to be in the House during ordinary sessions. She also said that the Deputy speaker sought to have a reference made to him expunged from the parliamentary records, and later on she granted it. This reference was made on 12^th May.

The Deputy speaker was accused of going against the parliamentary commission decision by returning the Shs 20 million yet he is a member of the same commission. The reference made to the Deputy Speaker, is against the rules of parliament which state that a Speaker or Deputy Speaker can only be discussed in the house when there is a substantive motion and must be given a right to defend themselves. The Speaker finally reviewed the request and granted that the reference to the Deputy speaker be expunged from the record.

Throughout their joint terms, the two have been mostly civil to each other but not without the occasional issue popping up. Recently the Shs 20 million given to members of parliament which has been referred to as a Covid-19 relief fund has been a source of discord. Rt. Hon Oulanyah has been under fire from various fellow members of parliament for his decision to hand over the money he received to his district task force. This went against the decision by that time, not to return the money but to use it as directed by the Speaker. This seems to have irked the Speaker and other members of parliament.