NRM VICTORY SUPPLEMENT NEW VISION, Wednesday, March 9, 2016 47 Will Kadaga retain her job From page 45 “I HOPE Mutesi noted that since many seasoned MPs were voted out KADAGA and the next Parliament will almost be full of new entrants, COMES BACK Parliament would need a person like Kadaga who has AS SPEAKER very good experience and can BECAUSE I help get these new people on board on how parliamentary DON’T SEE business is conducted. “She has very high chances ANYBODY and also considering her party ELSE WITH — for which is the second vice chairperson — has the majority THE KIND OF vis-à-vis the Opposition. Once she goes through at the NRM QUALITIES caucus, the win is defi nitely a THAT SHE sure deal,” Mutesi said. Maxwell Akora, the Maruzi HAS. SHE County MP (Uganda People’s Congress), said Kadaga had ALSO ensured the orderly fl ow of business in the House STABILISED and preserved the trust of THE HOUSE,” Parliament because her actions as Speaker were impartial. Maxwell Akora, Maruzi County MP “I hope Kadaga comes back as Speaker because I don’t see anybody else with the kind of qualities that she has. She In October 2013, Oulanyah has demonstrated fairness told the media that he felt he and stabilised the ninth was being used by his boss, Parliament,” Akora said. Kadaga, to oversee the passing He said the alternative of controversial laws such as Many seasoned MPs were voted out and the next Parliament will almost be full of new entrants would be Oulanyah because of the Petroleum (Exploration, having experience as deputy Development and Production) speaker, but he has got a Bill, 2012. 11:00pm, then my security oil Bill, just come and process number of election issues to He said he had only arrived tells me the Speaker wants the voting.” sort out in his constituency in the country from the US on to talk to you,” narrated He continued: “I am telling and also with his colleagues in the eve of the voting on the Oulanyah. “I picked the call you I was tired, my feet were the House. Petroleum Bill in November then she said, Hon. Oulanyah swollen. In my communication “I do not think he 2012, when he got a call from chair the House tomorrow. (to MPs) I said I was briefed (Oulanyah) has been fair in Kadaga. My feet were swollen. I said by the Speaker that you people handling House business,” “I arrived at Entebbe in the madam, what is the issue? She had resolved these issues Akora said. middle of the night about said I have fi nished with the and what is left is the process the voting. What do I get? Everybody shot up. I had to go and do things a normal person would not do. I read the Hansard there and then Who is Rebecca Kadaga? when everybody was listening. Is that something pleasant to do? I read that voting had adaga was born in Kamuli the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the started then it was suspended district on May 24, 1956. world’s largest union of 159 national then it was referred to the She attended Namasagali Parliaments, she called on NRM and committee.” College for her high non-NRM support in showcasing Oulanyah was responding school. She then joined Uganda’s positive attributes to the Makerere University whe visiting delegates. to a question about the Kshe studied law, graduating in 1978. perception that he conspired She went on to obtain a diploma in Change (A4C) staged a walk-to-work with the ruling party to force Deputy Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah legal practice from Law Development protest during the assembly that was, through controversial Bills in Centre in 1979. In 2000, she obtained in her opinion, the 9th Parliament’s Parliament. Executive. had managed to preside over a diploma in women’s law from the contribution to Uganda’s golden jubilee At the time Kadaga clashed “She was naïve not to realise, sessions where some male University of Zimbabwe. In 2003, she celebrations. Many opined that the with Museveni and the NRM after 24 years in Parliament, MPs appear unruly by jeering obtained a master’s degree in women’s Opposition had taken advantage of her in 2012 and 2013, some of Uganda’s Constitution and and stumping feet, Kadaga law from the University of Zimbabwe. accommodative attitude. the women empowerment Parliament are President said: “I use the rules and my When she opened Kadaga and Observers say the style with which activists said her woes were Museveni’s home playground, authority, because I have it.” Company Advocates in 1984 after she referees parliamentary sessions is chauvinistic-driven. where rules of the game are a stint as a legal assistant at Obol evenhanded, a trait so unusual among However, Beti Kamya, the tilted in his favour and where Controversial Bills that Ochola Law Chambers, analysts said president of Uganda Federal anybody playing against him Kadaga passed she seemed set for a life away from Many MPs while contributing Alliance, wrote in the media will lose the game, unless they They include the Anti- government to politics. on a motion to congratulate her on February 20, 2013, poured are ingenuous enough to lure Homosexuality Act 2014, She was elected MP for Kamuli in on being elected chairperson colds water on the women him to a neutral playground, which the Constitutional 1989 before climbing up to her current of the Commonwealth Women activists’ argument, saying where the rules of the game Court nullifi ed in August position, the third-highest political Parliamentarians International in at the time, they should are different!” Kamya, a former 2014 for having been passed September 2013, asked her to run for have focused on creating an Rubaga North MP, said. without the required quorum of 302 votes to Nandala Mafabi’s 72 on presidency after describing her as a New Vision May 19, 2011 signalled Ugandan MP’s national leader. The then Leader of environment that can nurture When asked by of at least one third of all readiness to follow her example of Opposition, Nandala Mafabi, urged: the principles and values of in an interview in January legislators. In June 2015, putting national interests above party “We want you to take Uganda to a separation of powers, so that 2015 what so far had been Kadaga also passed the politics. higher level. We want leaders who are speakers, male or female, are her hardest debate to steer, Anti-Terrorism (amendment) In April 2012 when Uganda became intelligent and we shall never betray able to give their best to this Kadaga said: “Maybe the oil Bill 2015 despite vehement you.” country, safe in the reality of a debate, because of the diverse protestations over lack of Legislature independent of the issues involved.”And how she quorum in Parliament. .