Speaker Jacob Oulanyah set to return to Parliament in August

Speaker Jacob Oulanyah is expected back to run Parliament’s business next month amidst sickness rumors.

For weeks now, reports on the health condition of Speaker of Uganda’s speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah have persisted.

First made by leading tabloid Daily Pepper, the reports claimed Jacob Oulanyah had been airlifted to Nairobi, and later to the UK in critical condition.

Parliament and pro-Oulanyah social media pages dismissed the claims as fake and baseless.

Chris Obore, Parliament’s director of Communications and Public Affairs insisted the speaker and his deputy Anita Among had drawn a schedule to take turns chairing plenary as opposed to the 10th Parliament where Speaker Rebecca Kadaga was accused of allowing her deputy to only chair the House when she was away.

Obore also revealed Oulanyah was resting and having time with his family after an intense campaign year.

“I am resting, nobody should get worried. I just took a break. The long campaigns took a toll on my body and so I decided to take a break,” Oulanyah repeated Obore’s statement in a recent interview with state daily The New Vision.

At the close of last month, deputy speaker of Parliament Among made it clear Oulanyah will be back in two months.

“The country voted for a Speaker and Deputy Speaker. We agreed that each of us should work for two months, and I started. After my two months I’ll also go and rest and the Speaker will come.”

With Among running parliamentary business in June and July, it is hoped that Oulanyah could return sometime in August 2021.

But weeks to next month, a section of MPs have joined other Ugandans to demand that Speaker Oulanyah publicly clears the air on his health condition.

The Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee of Government Assurances, Betty Nambooze, and her deputy Joseph Gonzaga Sewungu recently urged Oulanyah to come out and assure the public on his health condition.

Where is Speaker Jacob Oulanyah?