Oulanyah, the Legacy that was just beginning to be told

“Debate in the house should be based on facts and research and not emotions,” were words used by Jacob Oulanyah as he made his acceptance speech as Speaker of the 11^th Parliament. He urged fellow legislators to sharpen arguments rather than their voices and to front issues that would benefit the ordinary Uganda. Ugandans from then on began to look forward to a different Parliament, one they hoped would rise above pettiness and political differences. However, hardly a year into the new Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah was Sunday morning pronounced dead. 

A tweet by Uganda’s President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on Sunday afternoon confirmed the dreaded news. He stated that the Speaker had passed Sunday morning, although he delayed to announce this in order to allow family to know first. “Countrymen and Countrywomen. It is with a lot of sadness that I announce the death of the Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah, the Speaker of Parliament. I got information of this sad news at 10.30am, East African Time from people that have been with him and the doctor that was caring for him in the intensive care unit. He was a good Cadre. I delayed the announcement so that his children would be informed first,” Mr Museveni said. Last week, Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo accompanied by Deputy Speaker Anita Among, Dr Jane Ruth Aceng the Minister of Health and Opposition Democratic Party President Nobert Mao, alongside Oulanyah’s brother, Francis Emuna travelled to Seattle to visit the bedridden Speaker.

For weeks since February 4th, Oulanyah has been hospitalized in Seattle, Washington in the United States, were he was flown for reported emergency treatment over a yet undisclosed long illness. Since being flown for treatment, speculation was rife with many making false pronouncements about the Speaker’s death. Parliament on several occasions came clear, declaring as false news the pronouncements. The Speaker was first hospitalised at Mulago hospital and later at Nakasero Hospital before he was flown to the US. Earlier, he had been to Dubai where he underwent a surgical procedure.

A man of principles

“I have three principles; Is it okay with God, is it okay with the law; when I take that decision, will I sleep well?” Uganda’s Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah is quoted after beating his former boss Rebecca Kadaga by 310 votes against 197 to take the Speakership on May 24, 2021. With massive support from his party the NRM Oulanyah unseated Kadaga who had been speaker since 2011. Oulanya’s victory was short-lived as he began battling for his health soon after. In the last one year of the 11th Parliament, Oulanyah has only presided over two sessions of Parliament.

Born on 23 March 1965 to Nathan L’okori and Karen Atwon, Oulanyah came from a family his friends and contemporaries describe as having a humble background according the East African News. He attended St Joseph’s College Layibi and Dr Obote College Boroboro, both in Northern Uganda before moving to Kampala where he studied at Kololo Senior Secondary School. He later joined Makerere University in 1988 to pursue agricultural economics. He graduated in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in agricultural economics, but returned to study law at the same university in the same year, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. At the university, he was speaker of the university students’ guild.

After obtaining his diploma in legal practice at the Law Development Centre, he started his law firm, Oulanyah, Onoria & Company Advocates, actively working there until he joined elective politics in 2001 as Omoro County Member of Parliament with the Uganda People’s Congress ticket. At the time Uganda was under a one party rule known as the Movement system. Under the system, political play was on individual merit not party aspirations. 

In the early 2000s, government tasked the leaders from northern Uganda to help find a lasting solution in the war between government forces and the Lord’s Resistance Army rebels of Joseph Kony, which had lasted for more than a decade, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives and displacing millions of people, Oulanyah joined the team for peace talks. The talks involved top leaders from the region, the country and the continent, including former Mozambique president Joachim Chissano and they marked the defeat of the rebels, who were flushed out of Uganda, escaping to Central African Republic where some of them surrendered while others today remain holed up there.

Oulanyah gave the elective politics another shot in 2006, contesting to represent the same people of Omoro. This time, the country had returned to multiparty democratic dispensation and he contested on the UPC ticket but he lost. He then quit the UPC and joined the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM). In March 2011, Oulanyah was elected to represent Omoro County in Gulu District, in the Ninth Parliament, this time on the NRM ticket, after which he was elected Deputy Speaker of Parliament on 19 May 19, 2011. He was re-elected to represent Omoro County in the 2016 general elections, and was again elected deputy speaker of the 10th Parliament, with 300 votes against his closest rival Mohammad Nsereko’s 115 votes.

Leaders from across the political divide have since Sunday afternoon poured their sentiments upon the death of Oulanyah in what the media has described as a unifying moment. 

The Inspector General of Government, Beti Kamya Turwomwe tweeted “My heart goes out to the Family & Friends of the Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah, now the Late!! Besides his numerous accomplishments as a lawyer, legislator, administrator & Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda; he was a good man, a man of integrity & honor, a God-fearing man.” Ms Kamya is a former opposition leader. 

Mohamed El-Hamzawi, Egypt’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, for Regional Economic Organisations, tweeted; “From Egypt, my deepest condolences to the Family, People, H.E the President & the Government of Uganda, for the passing away of the Speaker of Parliament Rt. Hon. J.Oulanyah. May his Soul Rest in Peace.” 

Commander of the Land Forces and First son Gen Muhoozi Kainerugaba, eulogized Oulanyah stating; “I am very saddened to hear about the passing of our Speaker of Parliament, Right Honourable Jacob Oulanyah. He was a warm, friendly, energetic and straightforward man. He was a true and dependable comrade. Uganda has lost a hero. My condolences to his family. RIP ladit.”