NRM to decide candidates for Parliament speaker, Nankabirwa

The National Resistance Movement (NRM) party will reach a consensus on the candidate for the Speaker and Deputy Speaker race.

According to the Government Chief Whip Ruth Nankabirwa, although all MPs in the party are free to express their interest and contest for the Speakership race, the contestants will be vetted and approved by the party’s Central Executive Committee-CEC.

Nankabirwa was on Wednesday speaking during a quarterly engagement with Uganda Parliamentary Press Association (UPPA) members at the Office of the Prime Ministers’ boardroom.

The statement comes at the backdrop of a clash between the Speaker Rebecca Kadaga and Nankabirwa last week during plenary over the speakership race. Nankabirwa told MPs that she had posted in a WhatsApp group reminding MPs of the proceedings in the CEC when Kadaga and Oulanyah two faced off for the same position in 2016.

However Kadaga accused Nankabirwa of discussing CEC issues in Parliament.

Nankabirwa told the plenary chaired by Kadaga that in 2016, CEC had a consensus on which candidate the party should support.

Nankabirwa also says that NRM MPs are being mobilized by the Secretariat for the forthcoming National Leadership Institute retreat in Kyankwanzi and this is where the matter will be discussed. She says that NRM currently has able candidates for both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker and that CEC will have to speak to them.

Asked if the row between Oulanyah and Kadaga had been a matter of concern at the Government level, Nankabirwa says that this matter has never been discussed either in CEC or cabinet.