Prime
Minister questions love for ex-Speaker after death
The family of the former Speaker, Jacob Oulanyah, pays respect to him during the funeral service at his home in Muyenga, Kampala, March 3, 2022. PHOTO/DAVID LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Speaker Among said she will emulate Oulanyah and progress his agenda in the operations of the Parliament.
Emotions ran high yesterday as the body of fallen Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah in brown casket draped in the country’s national flag was returned to his residence in Muyenga, Kampala.
Before a dark-coloured A-plus funeral van with the casket negotiated the sharp corner from Kiwafu road to a narrow tarmac road leading to the late’s residence, a team of bikers from Uganda Bikers Association joined the procession as mourners stood solemnly at the roadsides in waiting. Oulanyah was also a biker.
Oulanyah’s body was taken to A-plus funeral home in Mengo, Kampala, on Friday after it was repatriated from the United States of America.
In a restricted attendance, close to 1,000 mourners with newly elected Speaker of Parliament Anita Among as the chief mourner, family members, and mourners wailed with immeasurable grief as a team of Acholi traditional dancers performed the royal Bwola dance to celebrate his life.
A two-hour session held at his home to bid him farewell. Testimonies from some of the more than 100 needy children he was sponsoring in school, sent more people shedding tears in grief as they revealed how the fallen Speaker helped them.
Addressing mourners at the residence, Mr Henry Oryem Okello, the State Minister for Foreign Affairs, describing Oulanyah as irreplaceable hero, said people should have expressed the kind of love they are showing at this point when he was still alive.
“Let us be honest in our hearts. If people had expressed this kind of love when he was alive, there would be too much [love]. A lot of this pouring of our love for him in his death. I wish he was alive to see this. We human beings are strange.
People lined up on the road sides to welcome Oulanyah when his body was being brought from Entebbe. I wish Oulanyah was alive to see this. It is not late to show that love. Let us wipe our tears by showing the love to the children and Oulanyah, who is now in heaven, will be there to see this. The true reflection of our love for Oulanyah begins on Friday after he is buried. What are you going to do for Oulanyah to be remembered? The best way is to support those children he was supporting,” he said.
Speaker Among said she will emulate Oulanyah and progress his agenda in the operations of the Parliament.
“Jacob has been a twin brother to me. The Central Executive Committee members (of NRM) made Jacob become the Speaker. Jacob wanted to become a Speaker. The President and Mama (Janet) had promised to Jacob he (President) would make him a Speaker and he did. Jacob was very good but very stubborn. You would tell him to go to hospital and he would say, ‘you Among leave me alone,’ so I would call Chief Justice (Alfonse Owiny-Dollo) who would whip him,” she told mourners.
“Jacob’s children are now our responsibility. Nominator of Jacob (for position of Speaker, the State Minister for Animal Industry Bright Rwamirama) also gave us (10) cows to be eaten on Friday (at the burial). I thank Prof Opio Oloya for being a good friend. Whatever we do, we [shall] always ask ourselves what would Jacob want to be done,” she added.
