The opposition Forum for Democratic Change FDC Party says government has failed its duty of keeping Ugandans safe during the COVID19 pandemic.
While addressing the press in Kampala this morning, Patrick Oboi Amuriat the FDC Part President said Ugandans have done their part by staying home and keeping social distance for over two months, yet government has instead fail to contain the virus, leading to an increase in cases from just a handful at the start of the lockdown, to the current 457.
Amuriat says that although UGX104 Billion was hurriedly passed by Parliament to procure Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), for medical workers, it has not been done.
“In fact, in addition to this we received support from the World Health Organization, China and Europe. The question that is not answered today is where did this support go?” Amuriat wondered.
He added that according to WHO, all cases diagnosed in a country should be registered there, but this is not the case in Uganda. The party president says that when cases in Uganda became many, President Museveni was afraid of what Ugandans would say about his fight against the pandemic, and decided to stop the count of truck drivers coming from the other parts of the region.
“This reduced the number from 370 to 180. Despite this directive, numbers are going up again rapidly, we are now at 457. We fear that Mr. Museveni may issue a directive stopping the counting of these cases like has happened in Tanzania. The FDC expresses sympathy to all you fellow citizens for the countless losses that you have registered as a result of the measures. When Museveni and his regime has finally gone, we will together pick up our pieces and reconstruct our lives and our country” Amuriat said.
He saluted the medical personnel on behalf of the party, for their resilience amidst what he termed as a low pay and lack of PPE. He encouraged them to hang in there for the sake of fellow citizens, and that this would change when the dictatorship is defeated and thrown out of the country.
Meanwhile, Amuriat announced that the party has started a phased re-opening of its offices, and that their headquarters is now fully open and functional.
“We have instructed all our regional and district offices to re-open. We want to guide our district and regional offices to begin holding smaller meetings to resuscitate the party’s position across the country. We want to encourage them as they conduct these meeting to do this within their guidelines. We want to insist, they should wash their hands regularly, wear masks, their meetings should be limited to a short time, and they should observe social distancing” the party president announced.