“I abandoned my son”
The Deputy Speaker of Parliament Hon Anita Among has revealed that she made hard choice abandoning her son to attend to ailing Speaker Jacob Oulanyah.
Oulanyah was pronounced dead by the President Yoweri Museveni on Sunday afternoon at 1:07 pm through his social media platform. Museveni said he delayed the announcement to give room for his family to receive the news first.
While giving a brief speech at the deceased’s residence in Muyenga , Kampala, Among stated that her son had suffered a condition that required an immediate operation and her presence.
Among says she received a call about his state on while in Dubai on transit to Seattle, US to visit Oulanya but chose to proceed on her journey.
“The day we were traveling to Seattle, I had a choice to make, I receievrd a call from Dubai that my son got an emergency and needed an operation, I told the Health Minister Dr Aceng, for Jacob, let my boy take care of himself ,I informed Aceng’s husband a Doctor, to handle my son. I abandoned my son for Jacob,”she explained.
“I abandoned my son”
Last week on Tuesday, Among left legislators and the public wondering when she adjourned the August house after 30 minutes in session to travel to the US.
Among was accompanied by senior colleagues in the government including Chief Justice Alfonse Owiny-Dollo, the Minister of Health Dr Jane Ruth Aceng and Democratic Party (DP) president Nobert Mao and a brother to the Speaker.
On 4 February 2022, he was flown via Iceland to Seattle, in the United States, for treatment of an unspecified illness. An Airbus A330-800 was chartered from Uganda Airlines for the purpose, at a cost to the government of 1.7 billion Ugandan shillings (US$460,000, €400,000).
Nathan Okori, the father of Speaker Jacob Oulanyah, has said his son did not die of natural causes and that he was “poisoned”, but quickly added that the death should not be politicised.
“I know all of you who have come here are mourners. His (Oulanyah’s) death is not easy news to welcome because I know he did not die of natural causes, he was poisoned,” Mr Okori told handful mourners at their ancestral home in Omoro District.
