The battle lines for Uganda’s next frontline have been drawn as the country slowly ‘gets back to life’ following the general elations.
Attention is now shifting to the race for the country’s number three post, the Speakership.
The top two contenders in the fight for the post need no introduction as they are the serving Speaker and Deputy Speaker – Rebecca Kadaga and Jacoub Oulanyah.
Both won their respective parliamentary seats with resounding victories.
However, unlike the presidential poll that pitted rival political parties, the speakership contest pits NRM top leaders against each other. Both are Vice Chairpersons of the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) party and members of the Central Executive Committee (CEC), the party’s top decision making body.
Although Kadaga has not made mention about seeking re-election, credible sources say there is no question about her plans to vie for it again.
On his part, Oulanyah, has not shied away from the question and has made his intentions clear, first telling a local daily that ‘Now is his time’ to lead the parliament.
Oulanyah has a massive ‘bargaining chip’ in case the race for the seat goes into negotiations about who should stand down for the other in a compromise similar to the 2016 election.
Then, Kadaga argued that her influence in the Busoga sub region where she hails, had helped in giving the ruling NRM a landslide victory.
Leaders in the party bought her argument and convinced Oulanyah to allow Kadaga completer her 10-year race.
Oulanyah who has always been passionate about the post because he believes it would give him an opportunity to uplift others and facilitate the entrenchment of good democracy, grudgingly allowed to give away.
However, this year, he comes into the race having helped in the mobilisation of Northern Uganda that massively voted for the NRM and Museveni at a time when the red National Unity Platform (NUP) was sweeping across the country.
On Thursday, he tweeted, “Just a matter of time…” sources say as a message to the Kadaga camp that exactly that, it’s a matter of time before he ascends the country’s number three post.
It waits to be seen how the run up to the election will playout in the next months.
