KAMPALA: Godfrey Kiwanda the National Resistance Movement (NRM) vice chairman for Buganda region, has said that the late Jacob Oulanyah confided in him that he had been poisoned.
Kiwanda said that although the former speaker of parliament had known underlying illnesses, what he said before his death can not be easily ruled out.
The NRM number four and former minister made these remarks while appearing on Capital FM’s political talk show on Saturday.
“I find no contradiction with Oulanyah’s father who insists that his son was poisoned, the late Rt. Hon Jacob Oulanyah told me too that he was poisoned,” Kiwanda said.
Kiwanda said that when Oulanyah told him that he had been poisoned, he asked him not to tell anyone at the time.
“However, I disclosed it to Hon. Baryomunsi” Kiwanda revealed.
Kiwanda’s remarks come after the burial Oulanyah’s in Lalogi, Omoro District, on Friday where the deceased’s father, Nathan Okori, reaffirmed that his son did not die of natural causes but was in fact poisoned.
Okori said that the poison affected his son’s health and by the time he was flown out of the country for treatment in the Seattle, United States of America, it was too late to save his life.
“Jacob Oulanyah was poisoned. He told me. And he was operated on, doctors attempted to deal with the poison. The poison affected his health so badly, he was not in a position to recover,” Oulanyah’s father revealed.
Last week, President Museveni warned members of the public, especially politicians against making claims that the late Oulanyah was killed, noting that soon police will come for them.
“I would like to warn some people who are in the habit of taking advantage of problems to make cheap politics. And actually we’re going to go for them because I have heard some people saying some people killed Oulanyah. The police will come and ask you to give them some information because Oulanyah did not die in a private home,” Museveni said during the state funeral ceremony at Kololo Independence grounds.
By the time of writing this report, It was not yet clear if police will follow up on the the statement’s of Kiwanda and the late speaker’s father.