This Saturday, Speaker Rebecca Kadaga will appear on Capital FM’s signature talk show, the Capital Gang to defend her job which is under the knife.
It will be the first time in over five years that she will be appearing on the show.
“It is a highly anticipated show. I am already getting calls from people asking why I had never invited her,” Gang producer, Patricia Osman, told EagleOnline.
According to a show teaser on the show’s Facebook book page, the Kamuli Woman MP and NRM’s third in command will be tasked to justify if she deserves another term as the Speaker and will be taken down memory lane on her performance during her current tenure.
“We shall put her to task about MPs pay and benefits, her relationship with her Party, her relationship with her deputy and MPs of the opposition parties,
“We will ask her about the support she has given to MPs and those who’ve passed away, contentious bills like POMB [Public Order management Bill) and the homosexuality bill and whether she feels vindicated about the NRM ‘rebels’ seeing that all are back in parliament!” the teaser reads.
As Ms Kadaga was flexing muscles with President Museveni in the 9th Parliament, her deputy Oulanyah chose to unquestionably do his party’s bidding. The Omoro County MP has been so full of praise for President Museveni that there is a school of thought which holds that the party might choose to reward what is widely seen as his unrepentant sycophancy,
For the last couple of weeks, Ms. Kadaga has been on different media platforms defending her candidature for speakership, occasionally pulling out justifications such as her being a woman and deserving of re-election because she needs to be given ten years just like her predecessor Oulanyah.
If their public pronouncements are to anything to go by, Ms Kadaga is in the race with her deputy, Mr Jacob Oulanyah.
Ms Osman says the Gang will host Mr Oulanyah as soon as he accepts their invitation.
The Race for Speaker
For the 112 Women MPs, Ms Kadaga enjoys a favourable position. This week, the Uganda Women Parliamentarians Association (Uwopa) endorsed her as their candidate. Though the endorsement is not binding, Kadaga is a darling of women political circles and Oulanyah will find the Uwopa vote difficult to court.
The ‘so-called’ NRM rebel MPs Theodore Ssekikubo and Wilfred Niwagaba also see this as payback time for Ms Kadaga. They are actively mobilising for her in their respective regions. It will be recalled that the Speaker stood firmly by Ssekikubo, Niwagaba, Barnabas Tinkasiimire and Muhammad Nsereko, stoutly refusing to implement the wishes of her party to throw them out of the House after they were controversially expelled.
Senior legislator and Opposition chief whip Cecilia Ogwal says Mr Oulanyah should be comfortable with maintaining the status quo, saying the Speaker’s experience as minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Deputy Speaker and Speaker gives her an edge.
