Since the debate on whom the NRM party will front for the office of speaker and deputy speaker in the 11th parliament began, proponents of Jacob Oulanya have been clung to smear campaign against his 10th parliament boss Rt Hon Rebecca Kadaga as a tool to gain sympathy.
They have been amplifying beyond truth that speaker kadaga undermines the authority of CEC, the top most organ of the NRM party referring to her nonpartisan statement she made while chairing a plenary session in which one of the senior party leaders attempted to safocate the impartiality brand of our democratic parliament.
On noticing that this could not help as Kadaga’s popularity and acceptability among the public and within the legislative circles has irresistibly raged high they have now resorted to another fabrication to insinuate non existent transparency weaknesses.
The desperate camp after intimidating patriotic media actors and bloggers who were airing out factual content with positive influence towards a secure decision for this country, they have now resorted to bribing the feable ones to publish falsehoods. For example, in one of the online channels today they misinform the public the speakers campaign is funded by one property mogul in Kampala whose building the parliament has reportedly rented.
It vital for our unsuspecting public and everyone to know that in the first instance the office of the speaker in any democracy is nonpartisan and impartial. It is a public office and organ of the state that derives its mandate from the national constitution and runs on well articulated rulesof procedure, not a political party function therefore Kadaga’s guidance to CEC not to indulge in parliamentary affairs was constitutional, in line with the rule of law, one of the greatest achievements attained by the NRM government and Pesident Museveni for Uganda.
Had Kadaga advised the NRM caucus, which is legally represented in parliament by the government chief whipp then the party would reprimand her since that is its official institutional representation in parliament. Kadaga herself the 2nd National Vice Chairperson of the NRM is a member of CEC, but probably overly objective and legalistic!
On the allegations of external funding of her campaign, ugandans are well aware of the political brokers who worked with property muguls in Kampala to corruptly sabotage an investigation into the operations of the Bank of Uganda which were being carried out by COSASE and which camp such individuals belong. To be on record, the name one Anita, a political broker close to Jacob Oulanya features heavily in the dealings with the property mogul mentioned and his dealings with her left the central bank rot insulated!
It should be noted that any matter of parliamentary procurement is technocratic and under the clerkship office not the political leadership of parliament as an institution and therefore neither speaker nor deputy speaker could have entered such a deal especially under the leadership incorruptible, internationally accredited and long time NRM cadre Kadaga as speaker.
However,problem currently is that self seekers want to discard merit and embrace blackmail to advance their agenda at the expense of ugandans. Nonetheless, Ugandan s and in particular NRM CEC and caucus know that unpopular person just touted by a few selfish people is a liability to ugandans because he won’t have any objectivity.
Parliament is a universal national organ of the state, all embracing and a mirror of political maturity and sustenance; not a den of intellectuall inefficiency and political Idiocracy!
If someone has been deputy speaker for 10 years but can’t build public confidence and among majority fellow legislators, then waits to be pushed and touted through falsehoods, lamentations and blackmail for such a noble responsibility, then the word non-starter finds suiting!