FORGIVEN! Jacob Oulanyah SACCO Debts Written Off

Nearly two years since he died, former Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah still had debts with the Uganda Parliamentary Savings and Credit Cooperative Organization (SACCO), it has emerged.

Oulanyah, who was also the Omoro County MP, died in Seattle, US in March 2022 after weeks of hospitalization.

But from then until now, the Parliamentary SACCO had not decided on the loans he had taken.

Oulanyah’s debt stood at nearly Shs295m. But since he is dead, the SACCO has decided that

SACCO Chairperson Robert Migadde (Buvuma County MP) explained why a decision had been taken to write off the loans taken by Oulanyah.

“While reviewing the SACCO’s policy on administration of the loan protection fund, we noticed that it was in conflict with the Co-operatives Statute – which requires the loan of a deceased members to be written against the shares and credit balances that the members to the loans of the following deceased members and has proceeded to write off the following loan balances against the Loan Protection Fund,” he said.

Apart from Oulanyah, other former MPs who have had their loans written off are Rehema Wetongola who had a debt of a little over Shs3m and Patrick Okabe whose debt was about Shs123m before he died in an accident. Okabe has since been replaced by his son and so was Oulanyah.

Oulanyah’s death left sharp divisions between his family and the government. While Oulanyah’s father claimed that his son had been poisoned, the health ministry’s report pointed to cancer leading to multiple-organ failure. (See Details Here, There and Over There).