KIU, Western Campus – The entire Kampala International University fraternity joins the rest of Uganda in mourning and honouring the fallen speaker of parliament Jacob Oulanyah for his service to the country.

Oulanyah died on March 22 in Seattle, Washington D.C at the age of 56 after falling sick for a long time, and his death was announced by President Yoweri Museveni via his twitter handle.

An agricultural economist, lawyer and politician, Oulanyah served as the speaker of parliament from 2021 after defeating former speaker Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga in a hotly contested race.

A short while after being voted speaker, Oulanyah flew to the United Kingdom, where he spent over a month amidst rumours that he had contracted COVID-19, rumours that were dispelled by government, which claimed he had gone to visit his children.

Subsequently, most of Oulanyah's duties were handled by Deputy Speaker Anita Among, fuelling further speculation about his health. 

He last presided over Parliament on 21 December 2021. 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 shillings.

This sparked rumours among the public and some sections of the media that Oulanyah had died but the government vehemently denied these claims. 

It later emerged that Among had checked on Oulanyah at his home on 29 January after she and other associates of his had been unable to contact him by telephone for three days. 

She found him in bed, having difficulty speaking; he had not eaten in the previous three days. He was taken to Mulago National Referral Hospital, where his doctors recommended that he be flown out of Uganda for treatment. 

On 15 March, Among, Democratic Party President Norbert Mao, and three others flew to Seattle to check on Oulanyah.

But unfortunately, he could not make it and he lost the battle of life on Sunday, March 22.

The KIU fraternity condoles with his family, relatives, friends, constituency and the entire country as a whole. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Additional information from wikipedia