Some African leaders have paid tributes to Uganda’s deceased speaker Jacob Oulanyah who died on Sunday while undergoing treatment in the U.S.
The news of his demise was announced on Twitter by President Yoweri Museveni, who gave no information on the cause of death.
“It is with a lot of sadness that I announce the death of Jacob Oulanyah, the Speaker of Parliament. 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,” Museveni tweeted.
Oulanyah, 56, has served as speaker for nearly ten months.
His relocation from a local hospital to Seattle generated a public outcry over the expensive cost of his treatment in the United States.
“A good cadre,” President Museveni said of the late speaker.
Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye expressed his “sorrow and anguish” upon learning of the death.
Bobi Wine, the Ugandan opposition leader, expressed his “sad sympathies to his family.”
Kizza Besigye, a veteran opposition politician, extended his “sincere and deepest condolences” to the family.
Jacob L’Okori Oulanyah was a Ugandan agricultural economist, lawyer and politician, who served as the Speaker of the 11th Parliament of Uganda since 2021 until his death in 2022. He was elected to that position on 24 May 2021, after defeating the former Speaker Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga.