Lumumba: Kadaga, Oulanyah ‘fight’ a shame to NRM

Ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) secretary general (SG) Justine Kasule Lumumba has described the political fight between speaker Rebecca Kadaga and her deputy Jacob Oulanyah as “a shame.”

Kadaga and Oulanyah have expressed interest in the speaker job.

While Oulanyah is seeking elevation to parliament’s top job after serving as deputy speaker for 10 years, his boss Kadaga is seeking a third term as t the helm.

When she launched her reelection campaign recently, Kadaga took a swipe at Oulanyah.

But the Omoro County MP also fired back at her.

The contest for speakership, which has also attracted FDC spokesperson Ibrahim Ssemujju Nganda and DP MP-elect Richard Ssebamala, had largely dominated broadcast, print and digital headlines until NRM chairman President Yoweri Museveni ordered the suspension of campaigns.

Voting for the 11th Parliament Speaker will happen in May 2021.

Now, NRM SG Lumumba says she had asked Museveni to call Oulanyah and Kadaga for a meeting because she was “so saddened” by the duo’s misconduct.

“They have been a shame to the party,” Lumumba said of Oulanyah and Kadaga during a recent politics talk show.

She accused the duo of “ideological bankruptcy.”

Lumumba further noted the party was sorry for the manner in which the two top leaders both in government and the ruling party had conducted themselves.

“I want to take this opportunity to apologize for what has happened. It was so ugly.”

Kadaga is the second national vice chairperson of the NRM party, the third in hierarchy after Museveni and his deputy Moses Kigongo.

Oulanyah is the vice chairperson for Northern Uganda.