She is the first woman to be elected Speaker in the history of the Parliament of Uganda. She succeeded Edward Ssekandi, who served as Speaker from 2001 to 2011.[2][3]
Between 1984 and 1988, she was in private law practice. From 1989 to 1996, she served as the member of parliament for Kamuli District in the District Woman's Constituency. She served as the Chairperson of the University Council for Mbarara University between 1993 and 1996. In 1996, she served as Secretary General of the East African Women Parliamentarians Association.
From 1996 to 1998, Rebecca Kadaga was the Ugandan Minister of State for Regional Cooperation (Africa and the Middle East). From 1998 to 1999, she was Minister of State for Communication and Aviation, and from 1999 to 2000, she was Minister of Parliamentary Affairs. She was elected as Deputy Speaker of Parliament in 2001, a position that she held until 19 May 2011, when she was elected Speaker of Parliament.[8]
On December 20, 2017, Kadaga presided over the Ugandan Parliament session that passed a constitutional amendment which, among other measures, eliminated the requirement for candidates running for the presidency to be younger than 75 years of age. The amendment essentially gave Museveni leeway to run for President of Uganda for his sixth term in office.[10]
On 14 January 2021, Kadaga was re-elected to Parliament as a Woman Representative for Kamuli District. Consequently, she embarked on a campaign to retain her position as Speaker of Parliament for a third term. Kadaga lost the Speaker Vote to her former deputy Jacob Oulanyah after falling out of favor with her party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM).[11]
Parliamentary duties
Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga & Ursula von der Leyen - 2022The Vice President, Shri M. Hamid Ansari with the Speaker of the Parliament of Uganda, Ms. Rebecca Kadaga, in Kampala, Uganda
Besides her duties as speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, she sat on the following parliamentary committees:
Appointments Committee – The Committee reviews all Cabinet appointments by the President, and may approve or reject an appointment: The Speaker chairs the committee
The Parliamentary Commission – The Speaker chairs the Commission
The Business Committee – The Speaker chairs the committee
Controversy
Kadaga vowed to pass the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill through parliament by December 2012. The bill – sometimes referred to as the "Kill the Gays bill" – at one time sought to make acts of homosexuality punishable by death or life imprisonment but later removed the death penalty option from the bill. She says it will become law since most Ugandans "are demanding it".[12]
In December 2012, Kadaga was in Rome to give a speech at the Seventh Session of the Consultative Assembly of Parliamentarians for the International Criminal Court and the Rule of Law.[13][14]
Reports circulated that Kadaga received a blessing from Pope Benedict XVI at a Vatican mass.[15] Soon after the news broke, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi issued a statement that said: “relations with the delegation were not out of the ordinary and no blessing was given.” The group of Ugandan MPs greeted the Pope “just like any other individuals attending an audience with the Pope would” and this was “by no means a specific sign of approval of Kadaga’s actions or proposals.” [16]
In March 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kadaga tweeted that a "spray, which instantly kills the Corona virus, has been discovered & is to be co-produced in Uganda".[17] She [18] gave an impression that what was later on to be understood as a simple sanitizer was actually treatment for COVID-19 and received so much backlash from Ugandans on social media and professional bodies in the medical field like the Uganda Medical Association,[19] and the Pharmaceutical Society of Uganda. She hit back by calling the people of the Association brainless.[20]
In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kadaga and her fellow members of parliament allocated to themselves over 10 billion Uganda shillings of what was meant to be relief funds for efforts to fight against the pandemic and its associated socio-economic disruptions.[21]
^Namutebi, Joyce; Mukasa, Henry; Olupot, Milton (19 May 2011). "Kadaga is first female Speaker". New Vision. Kampala, Uganda. Archived from the original(Archived from the original on 11 December 2014) on 11 December 2014. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
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