During the battle for speakership of the 11th parliament, President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni was forced to abandon Jacob Oboth Oboth who wanted to replace the late Jacob Oulanyah who died after one year in the office.
Highly placed sources both in State House and security confirmed to TV10 Gano mazima that when Museveni mets the NRM legislators at Kololo airstrip to sell to them Oboth’s candidature, they openly told him that they are supporting Annet Anita Among (AAA) who by then was the deputy speaker of parliament.
Sources claim that the legislators gave a condition to Museveni if they are to support his man. He gave them Shs100m each because they had already given their word to support AAA and she had allegedly also given them something.
These sources add that because Museveni did not have a lot of money to pay the NRM legislators, he decided to go back to consult his party’s top organ the Central Executive Committee (CEC) for guidance but he was surprised by the response of the majority.
“A big number of CEC members told Museveni that he cannot change the practice they have set that when the speaker leave office, the deputy takes over. Even though he tried to explain to them that AAA still needs time to gain experience to run parliament, many turned a deaf ear,” a source said.
He added that Museveni decided to bring in Thomas Tayebwa as deputy speaker to balance the boat.
In the 2021 speakership race, Tayebwa supported former speaker of parliament Rebecca Kadaga who was defeated by Oulanyah who was standing on the NRM ticket.
Among was in Oulanyah’s camp and Museveni supported her, very sure that Oulanyah was going to teach her how to properly run parliament.
Many thought that Museveni supported AAA because of the clandestine work she did for him and the NRM party to weaken the opposition, especially the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) where she was a member.
However, NRM insiders maintained that the way the party CEC members behaved during the process of choosing Oulanyah’s successor sent a message to Museveni that even his top party organ was infiltrated.
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“I was not surprised when the president took all that period without meeting CEC, he is very bitter with them and I’m telling you many of them will not come back on that committee in the coming term,” a source said.
He added that when Museveni met AAA in the final CEC meeting in State House Entebbe which gave her the green light to contest for speakership seat on NRM ticket, there was a big yellow file on his table and the president clearly warned her that she has a file on her.
“As a parent, he advised her to be very careful when running parliament because he has information on how mafias use parliament to fuel corruption in the country.”
Sources unveiled that when Museveni agreed with the paper presented to him to rationalise government agencies, he decided to meet NRM legislators at Kololo and plead with them to support this idea when it comes to parliament because it was passed by cabinet.
To Be Continued Tomorrow.
