Accidental Speaker Label: Anita Among Fires Back at Norbert Mao

Anita Annet Among has fired back at justice and constitutional affairs minister Norbert Mao over the accidental speaker label.

Last month, Mao, the newly elected MP for Laroo-Pece, announced he would run for the speaker of 12^th parliament.

He said that Anita Among, the Bukedea District Woman MP, became speaker of parliament because of “unforeseen circumstances.”

When then Speaker Jacob Oulanyah died in 2022, Anita Among, until then Oulanyah’s deputy, was elected speaker. (See Details Here and There).

“After Jacob Oulanyah died, we got an accidental speaker of parliament. It was not meant to be like that. Oulanyah passed away while still serving as Speaker, creating a vacancy that had to be filled,” said Mao.

“Unfortunately, we lost the late Jacob Oulanyah. So we got an accidental Speaker. Yes, because nobody plans for death. It was not supposed to be that way, but now there’s an opportunity.”

Mao even suggested that Oulanyah would not forgive him for doing nothing about replacing the accidental speaker.

“At a very personal level, I wonder what my friend Jacob Oulanyah would tell me if I met him on the other side of life, and he says, ‘Mao, I left you behind. You have seen what is happening, and you did nothing?’” he noted.

ANITA AMONG RESPONDS TO NORBERT MAO’S ACCIDENTAL SPEAKER LABEL

Speaking at during the Women’s Day Breakfast meeting held at Parliament, Anita Among wondered how she could be labelled an accidental speaker when she was elected by 415 MPs.

She also noted that she did not have to go to school to be taught how to become speaker of parliament of Uganda.

“There is no school for training for Speaker of Parliament, and there is no accidental Speaker of Parliament,” she said at the event where she met several women MPs-elect ahead of International Women’s Day.

“[The person being labelled] accidental Speaker of Parliament… was voted by 415 Members of Parliament and because the accidental speaker was voted by that number, she automatically became the speaker.”

Among was confident that she would retain her speaker seat, and that Ruhinda North MP Thomas Tayebwa would keep his deputy speaker job.

“By God’s grace, she [referring to herself] will be the Speaker of the 12th Parliament. By God’s grace, Triple A [Anita Annet Among] will be the Speaker and Double T [Thomas Tayebwa] will be the deputy speaker,” she said.

Just this week, Museveni ‘rejected’ Norbert Mao by endorsing speaker Anita Among for reelection, as reported Here.

Read interesting facts about Speaker Anita Among and her deputy Thomas Tayebwa Here and There.