During the Tuesday plenary session of Parliament, Speaker Oboth-Oboth was very deferential in his remarks about the role Rebecca Kadaga has played in the governance of this country over the years.
Kadaga was here to address the country on what her Ministry of EAC Affairs was doing to alleviate the suffering Ugandan traders are enduring when transacting outside their country’s borders as counterparts in especially Kenya and Tanzania reject the Ugandan shilling and demand to be paid either in the US dollars or the respective currencies of such sister countries.
This is increasing the cost of doing business for the Ugandan traders, yet inside Uganda other East Africans don’t endure similar constraints. Kadaga, who currently chairs the EAC Council of Ministers, explained to Parliament what her and President Museveni (chair of EAC Summit) are doing to have resolution of the problem.
At the beginning of her presentation, Kadaga, who rarely came to the legislature during the 12th Parliament largely because she was very contemptuous of Oboth-Oboth’s predecessor Anita Among, heaped praises on Oboth-Oboth and thanked God for using him to effect so much reform in such a short time.
While welcoming him back from the recent BRICS event in Asia, the Kamuli Woman MP who is also the first deputy prime minister, thanked Oboth-Oboth for “reviving the culture of Parliamentary Groups” which had enabled the top leadership of Ugandan legislature to once again be accepted globally. This contrasts with Anita Among, a Speaker whose interactions globally were constrained by the fact that she had been sanctioned by Western governments which considered her corrupt and guilty of other forms of abusive conduct.
Kadaga said Oboth-Oboth’s approach of being open to the rest of the world was very good because it would get the Ugandan Parliament back to those old days “when we had relationships with China, Serbia, UAE and others.”
Speaking with her characteristic eloquence as always, Kadaga added that: “So, the future is now very bright [under Speaker Oboth-Oboth’s leadership].” She made it clear that the world must now realize that with Oboth-Oboth serving as Speaker, the Ugandan legislature was back to be part of the civilized world.
She said the Ugandan legislature had, during the last five years preceding Oboth’s ascendance, lost out on many fraternal relationships including the “forum of French speaking” MPs from the global South.
She observed all this isolationism was weakening, as opposed to strengthening, the Pearl of Africa whose flag MPs celebrated her for raising and keeping so high while using the platform availed to her in her capacity as Uganda’s Minister charged with EAC affairs. Besides Oboth-Oboth, other MPs who celebrated Kadaga included NUP’s Hakim Kizza Sawula who is supposed to keep her under check as the shadow Minister for EAC affairs.
Sawula revealed how MPs during a recent visit to EAC Secretariat in Arusha had heard from several EALA MPs and EAC Secretariat staff that Kadaga was simply the most admired and respected of all the EAC Ministers from the region. That they spoke of a Ugandan Minister who is very dedicated to ensuring that the EAC integration project succeeds to achieve the ideals Pan-Africanists like Gen YK Museveni of Uganda desire to see.
Oboth-Oboth agreed with this and called upon MPs to rally their voters to unanimously be proud of the fact that their country has the most effective and most respected EAC Affairs Minister from all the partner states. Oboth-Oboth said he personally was proud of the great job Kadaga was currently doing in her capacity as the chairperson for the EAC Council of Ministers.
Oboth-Oboth, who first became MP in 2011, confessed that he was the great Speaker many Ugandans believe he is (in comparison to what prevailed before he took office) because he personally was ‘generously’ mentored by Rebecca Kadaga who was Speaker as of that time. Before becoming Speaker in 2011, Mama Busoga had served as Deputy Speaker under Edward Sekandi for 10 years.
Oboth-Oboth implied that Kadaga used that vast experience to deliberately mentor and groom good legislators like himself who she purposed to become future Speakers someday. Oboth-Oboth said he was a great Speaker, a fact that was attested to by several MPs, because of that deliberate mentorship by Kadaga who was Speaker for 10 years (2011-2021).
Whenever an MP praised Kadaga, there was loud and sustained applause, which Oboth-Oboth encouraged MPs not to be ashamed of engaging in because there was simply nothing wrong with celebrating the good leader Kadaga had been when she is still alive and able to hear what fellow MPs think about her. He also celebrated her humility of effortlessly remaining down to earth even when she is a woman who has achieved so much during her decades of public service, within the borders of Uganda and beyond.
When Hakim Kizza Sawula, the NUP MP was done with his response to the Kadaga statement, MPs from both sides of the aisle were unanimous in being respectful as they discussed Kadaga’s statement. Even when there are aspects on which MPs faulted Kadaga and demanded that her Ministry does more to adequately protect the interests of the Ugandan traders, the legislators were very respectful-something for which the Deputy Premier commended them. At the beginning of her presentation, Kadaga spoke Kiswahili, something which enthused majority MPs present.
The people’s representatives promised bipartisan support to Kadaga, including ensuring that her Ministry gets more funding to deepen public awareness about the EAC matters and how the same impacts ordinary East African citizens.
She called on MPs to also participate in sensitizing Ugandans about the benefits of regional integration as opposed to leaving the same to her Ministry alone. Oboth-Oboth offered to give her all the time she needs to one day come and comprehensively update Parliament on the stage at which the EAC integration project is right now and what the people’s representatives can do to amplify the same.
The Speaker also spoke about the EAC marathon whose preparatory activities Kadaga and other stakeholders had launched at a media event earlier in the day. The marathon, to which all Ugandans and their families are invited and expected, will take place on Sunday 29th November in Kampala. Oboth-Oboth said many guests were expected from within Uganda and elsewhere in the EAC region. In otherwords, Parliament will thickly be involved to ensure that that event goes very successfully-Give us feedback on this story through our email: kamwokyatimes@gmail.com
