Speaker Oulanyah should lead a mindset change
Tuesday June 01 2021
Dear Tingasiga:
My wife and I were very pleased by the news of Jacob L’okori Oulanyah’s election as Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament. We congratulate him and hope that he will offer a less combative and humbler style of leadership than his predecessor.
We also hope that Oulanyah will restrict the Speaker’s roles and public activities to those that are prescribed by law and tradition. These are to preside over all sittings of Parliament; to chair the Parliamentary Commission, the Committee on Appointments and the Business Committee; to represent Parliament in its corporate relations; and to prologue Parliament by proclamation.
Daily Monitor
Saturday April 03 2021
Summary
Advertisement
Our latest topic of street chatter talk has been the fight to lead Uganda’s next Parliament. Ideally, this is a critical and consequential matter.
In a genuine democratic polity, the legislature is by far the most important of the three branches of government, in fact more important than the Executive, for its two core functions.
First, Parliament makes laws and provides the basis for government policies and programmes. Second, it provides checks and balances on the exercise of authority by the other two branches of government, the Judiciary and Executive, and all other agencies of State and government. More generally, Parliament is supposed to be the real voice of the people, in the service of the common good and defence of the public interest.