Peers’ insights into ex-Speaker’s unknown world

Former prime ministers John Patrick Amama Mbabazi and Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, and the former Chief Justice Bart Katureebe on Sunday night paid tribute to fallen Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah.
In their remarks to mourners the leaders described Oulanyah as a unifier, nationalist, peacemaker and legislator, who set the bar high.

John Patrick Amama Mbabazi
The late Oulanyah was a bridge builder, a consummate advocate of the rights of the ordinary people. He served Uganda with great diligence, dedication and dignity.

A good Speaker is not necessarily an extraordinary person. He is an ordinary person but an ordinary person of the highest calibre. That was Oulanyah. He had all these qualities and more. 

Oulanyah has experienced many adversities and he persevered through them all not for the sake of ambition or vanity, not for wealth or power but only for the people and the country. 

So he is dead. But it is not the length of life but the depth of it. Oulanyah would want us to carry on. We are all grieving but we have to carry on. Jacob has left an indelible mark that can’t be erased by his demise. 

Dr Ruhakana Rugunda
Jacob and I interacted mainly on running of government, especially when I was the leader of government business.

He actually assisted me greatly because if he anticipates a problem or he saw some issues, he would not wait for you to come to Parliament, he would call you or physically meet you to discuss issues and solve them. That helped the work of Parliament to move faster and move well. And that made it easier for government to handle issues in Parliament. I must say what he did for me, he did it for ministers and MPs.

His interest was to see a smoothly running Parliament, productive and concentrating on serious business that would build the country. 

Jacob was a very disciplined member of the party, a very good cadre. He was central in ceasefire agreement with Lord’s Resistance Army and return of peace in northern Uganda and the government of South Sudan worked with him to train the legislators in their country.

In a nutshell, Jacob has gone too early, because he was a rising star. He was unstoppable but unfortunately the criminal death has found its way.”

Bart Katureebe
The man had just been elected. He worked so hard for it. The country had so much hopes in him. He was going to transform Parliament. To transform the level of debate.

He wanted fact based debate. Focused debate. And everybody said “yeah.” But now a few weeks later after he had assumed the position of the Speaker he is dead. Why?  

Jacob had to die whether at 50, be it 60 or 100, he had to die as we all shall. But we have to look at what he has done. We all are judged by what we have done in our contribution in impacting people. He has died, we are sad, we must mourn him but his legacy should be kept.