Uganda Speaker who compared Museveni to Jesus passes on

Uganda is in mourning following the death of Jacob Oulanyah, the Speaker of Parliament who once likened President Yoweri Museveni to Jesus Christ.

An economist, lawyer and politician, Oulanyah, passed on in Seattle, USA, where he was receiving treatment for an unknown condition. He was aged 56.

Museveni announced his death on Twitter.

20th March, 2022

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.

— Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) March 20, 2022

He’d served as Deputy Speaker for ten years and was elected Speaker last year and had barely served for two months when he fell in.

He is remembered for describing President Museveni, who has ruled the tiny East African country for three and a half decades, like ‘Jesus who left his comfort zone in heaven and opted to come down to earth to die for sinners’.

“President Museveni is like Jesus Christ who left his comfort zone of heaven and opted to come down to earth to die for sinners,” Oulanyah said in 2018, as quoted by Daily Monitor.

"President Museveni is like Jesus Christ who left his comfort zone of heaven and opted to come down to earth to die for sinners"- Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Jacob Oulanyah
Who will next compare President Museveni to God?#MonitorUpdates https://t.co/plfFoWIEgP

— Daily Monitor (@DailyMonitor) March 26, 2018

Christians believe Jesus Christ is the son of God who came to the world to save them from sin.

Oulanyah left for the USA for treatment in February 2022, a trip the government is said to have chartered a flight for him at a cost of UGX1.7 billion (about Sh50 million).

And in a related development, Oulanyah’s father Nathan Okori says he believes his son did not die of natural causes.