The Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Jacob Oulanyah, is in good health, the director of communication and public affairs at Parliament, Chris Obore, has said.
Obore was responding to a local daily publication that the Speaker is critically ill and that there are plans of evacuating him for specialised treatment.
He said the Speaker is currently working from home.
“Following a year of intense political campaigns, keeping the Rt. Hon. Speaker away from home for months, he is making sometime to be with his family. This has been enabled by the new schedule of work at Parliament, where the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker take turns to conduct House business,” he said.
“Secondly, the Deputy Speaker chairs the House as a shared responsibility not only when Speaker is away. That’s new approach.”
“In keeping with the Presidential guidelines on COVID-19, Parliament is, from the top leadership, scaling down physical presence at work. The Speaker advises the general public to observe the SOPs and keep safe,” he added in a statement.
On June 21, Parliament issued a notice, scaling down staff to 10% physical presence at the workplace.
“For avoidance of doubt, only Members of Parliament, staff and service providers should access the precincts of Parliament,” reads the notice issued by Henry Yoweri Waiswa on behalf of the Clerk to Parliament.