By Javier Silas Omagor
The UPDF engineering brigade is speeding up the construction of former Speaker Jacob Oulanyah’s multi-billion house at his ancestral home in Lalogi sub-county, Omoro county in Omoro district.
This comes after the bereaved family requested the Government to complete the house so that the last vigil is hosted there on the eve of the former Speaker’s burial.
Oulanyah will be buried in Lalogi next Friday, April 8.
According to the Omoro district LC5 chairperson, Douglas Peter Okello Okao, President Yoweri Museveni pledged to complete the double-storeyed building on time.
Construction is spearheaded by the UPDF engineering brigade working round the clock to expedite the work.
Confidants say the former Speaker of Parliament was to see his house completed by 2022.
To complete this project, he set up a brick-making factory that provided building materials.
Jacob Oulanyah
He also provided bricks to several people in his village to upgrade from grass thatched to modern permanent houses.
Silvesto Odoki, a teacher at Ajuri Primary School and one of the beneficiaries, said in 2019, Oulanyah constructed for him a house using bricks from his factory.
Hundreds of bricks are currently laying in big heaps at the factory. It’s not clear who will carry forward this community transforming project.
Oulanyah is commonly known as Dano Pa Dano which is loosely translated in Acholi as a people’s person.
He is also credited for leading the carving out Omoro district from Gulu.
By the time of his death, he was in advanced stages of installing the very first radio station in the district.
As they await Oulanyah’s body expected in the country on Friday, April 1, the UPDF construction brigade personnel are working with the bereaved family to facelift all houses at the ancestral home, in Lalogi.
Okello, who is also the local funeral organising committee chairperson, said interdenominational prayers are being held every day at 1:00pm.
Apart from prayers, the Acholi traditional Bwola (Royal) and Otole (Warriors’) dances will be performed all throughout the funeral events leading to the burial of the former Speaker.
A descendant of the Okaruwok Yeto Lee clan, Oulanyah loved traditional dances.
Jacob Oulanya performing the Bwola dance with a cultural group at the National Theatre in 2017
