The Speaker of Parliament of Uganda, Jacob Oulanyah, has been pronounce dead at the age of 57 years after suffering from cancer.
He passed away at 10:30am on Sunday at a hospital in Seattle, United States, where he was rushed to recently for a medical treatment.
The late Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah was the Speaker of Uganda’s eleventh Parliament, which is currently in session.
He was elected to that position on 24th May, 2021, after defeating the former Speaker Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga.
His death was announced by President Yoweri Museveni who posted on his twitter page that: “Countrymen and Countrywomen. It is with a lot of sadness that I announce the death of the Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah, the Speaker of Parliament.”
According to the Uganda President, “I got information of this sad news at 10.30am, East African time from People that have been with him and the doctor that was caring for him in the intensive care unit.”
The President did not disclose the cause of death.
However, close associates said Oulanya had stage four cancer when he was rushed to Seattle, United States.
The former Speaker had been hospitalized since February 3, 2022 when he left Uganda on a chartered Uganda Airlines Flight UR 2, plane registration number 5x-NIL. It preceded a 7-day week hospitalization in Uganda.
Doctors had recommended to Oulanyah to stay in the US until April 2022.
Oulanya last chaired Parliament on November 24, 2021.
He was a Ugandan agricultural strategist who also worked as a lawyer and politician.
Following his victory over previous Speaker Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, he was appointed to that position on May 24, 2021.
Uganda’s parliament appointed him Deputy Speaker in May 2011 and he served in that position until May 2021.
As a former legislator in Uganda’s Northern Region, Oulanyah was responsible for the protection of the Omoro County constituency, Omoro District and the Acholi sub-region before being elected to the presidency.
According to media reports gathered by DGN Online, recently, some fake news concerning Jacob Oulanyah’s death has been flipping throughout the internet.
Last Tuesday evening, Chris Obore, the chief of communications and public relations at the House of Commons, revealed that some individuals had ‘hacked’ into Wikipedia and altered Speaker Jacob Oulanyah’s biography.
As Obore indicated in a message on his Twitter account, the alleged hackers signed in using the Virtual Private Network (VPN) in order to avoid being detected by the authorities.
As reported by the media, Jacob Oulanyah was sent to the hospital in Seattle City because of his health problems.
However, according to the Monitor newspaper, the Speaker of the House of Commons appeared to have regained his or her health.
Jacob Oulanyah was married to Lady Winnie Amoo Okot, whom he adored, and they have two children.
In 2012, the Uganda President was present at the couple’s wedding ceremony in Munyonyo, which was attended by hundreds of guests.
Lady Winnie is an Acholi companion of Oulanyah’s, and her mother is Santa Okot, a former lady MP from Pader district who is also a former member of parliament.
As Oulanyah’s representative in the seventh Parliament, Okot became acquainted with Lady Winnie through his political connections, which he shared with her mother.
Despite this, their relationship did not last forever, as the couple separated in 2016, according to insiders.
Additionally, while she was married to Oulanyah and residing with him in Uganda, Lady Winnie gave birth to two beautiful children, who are still alive today.
Jacob Oulanyah’s internet worth is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to several sources.
The majority of his money was accumulated throughout the course of his successful career as a lawyer and politician.
In addition to this, after graduating from the LDC, Oulanyah worked as a professor at the institution.
Around the same time, he launched his own private legal practice with the firm Oulanyah, Onoria & Company Advocates in New York City.
BY Daniel Bampoe