MAO: Come clean on Speakership

Norbert Mao

Nobert Mao has no locus, objective reason or right to make personal noise in the name of seeking the speakership of our 12th Parliament. The prerogative lies with the President and his NRM Party, with whom Mao should engage privately and quietly.

COMMENT | PROF MORRIS OGENGA-LATIGO | After some silence following tough barbs on the matter of the next Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, including DP President Nobert Mao describing as ‘accidental Speaker’ the March 2022 election of Anita following the sad demise of Jacob Oulanyah, attention is again back on my brother Nobert. Gerald Siranda, DP Secretary General and EALA member, has declared support for Speaker Among by saying, ‘She is my mother’!!!

Before Mao and his supporters respond, my advice is simple – you are a lawyer, legislator, Cabinet minister and DP Party leader; given what our speakership and its history are under the 1995 Constitution, your objective approach should be quiet engagement.

Let us consider these four facts.

On election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, Article 8 (2&3) of our Constitution provides simply that (2) “The Speaker and Deputy Speaker shall be elected by Members of Parliament from among their number.”; and (3) “A person shall not be qualified to be elected a Speaker or Deputy Speaker if he or she is a Vice President or a Minister.”

These provisions were made simple very deliberately to shield the speakership from politics and partisanship because, as the presiding officer in a multiparty House, the speaker must embody and exercise impartiality and strictly uphold the provisions of our constitution and our laws. As such, engaging in raw politics and free talk in the name of seeking the speakership is wrong and unwarranted.

Secondly, by Commonwealth tradition and practice, the majority party or one in a majority alliance forms the next government and/or provides the next speaker and his/her deputy. In Uganda now, whether as DP leader or as a tiny part of an alliance with NRM, for which he is serving as minister, Mao has no locus, objective reason or right to make personal noise in the name of seeking the speakership of our 12th Parliament. The prerogative lies with the President and his NRM Party, with whom Mao should engage privately and quietly.

Thirdly, by precedence established from the illustrious CA Chair and first Speaker under the 1995 Constitution, James Wapakhabulo, the Speakers of our Parliament, except for Jacob Oulanyah, have served two terms of their tenure: Edward Ssekandi 2001-2006 & 2006-2011 and Rebecca A. Kadaga 2011-2016 & 2016-2021. Of course, two attempts were made to subvert this established tradition.

In May 2016, Oulanyah who was Deputy Speaker in the first tenure of Rebecca Kadaga as Speaker, declared his intention to contest against Kadaga and there was a huge uproar. On NBS Morning Breeze, Simon Kagwa Njala asked me to react to this challenge, and my simple response was, “President Museveni talks with even his worst enemies; why doesn’t he put the two down and allow Kadaga to serve her second and last term?”

Shortly after, media was awash with State House pictures of the president flanked by Kadaga and Oulanyah, where he announced that Kadaga would stand as speaker and Oulanyah as deputy speaker. Unfortunately, in 2021, even after going through the above contest and knowing the 2-term tenure of speakership, Rebecca Kadaga contested speakership against Oulanyah and suffered a humiliating defeat.

Lastly, Anita Among is currently serving her first tenure as the speaker of Parliament, even if “accidental”. By established tradition, therefore, Speaker Among is entitled to stand in May 2026 without contestation from within the NRM and/or allies unless the president and NRM decide otherwise. Those in the NRM/Alliance who think they have good reasons to oppose the continued Speakership of AAA should either bring out the issues they have against her or wait and table their objections the day Anita Among is the nominated speaker of the 12th Parliament.

To my brother Nobert Mao, the strong Acholi culture teaches us that regardless of how favoured or blindly ambitious a child is, out of respect and tradition, one will not audaciously sit on an elder’s chair without consequences. It is your duty and honour to uphold established traditions and precedents.