Mbabazi blasts government for hiding rot in hospitals

Independent presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi inspects the collapsed Aswa Bridge at the Lira-Pader border on Wednesday. PHOTO BY BILL OKETCH. 

LIRA/OYAM. Presidential candidate Amama Mbabazi has accused the the government of hiding what he called the horrendous state of government hospitals in the country by blocking access to them.
“Those hospitals are just buildings; in any case they don’t have drugs and health workers,” he told hundreds of his supporters at Minakulu Trading Centre B in Minakulu Sub-county, Oyam District.

“Fortunately all these (problems) can be fixed, and we have a programme to fix them,” he added.
In a December 30 statement, the Electoral Commission slapped a ban on presidential candidates’ visits to hospitals, places of worship, schools and markets. The commission notified the Inspector General of Police, Gen Kale Kayihura, to enforce the new guidelines. The latest EC decision is in response to the spate of clashes between police authorities and some presidential candidates who had turned visitation to such facilities to ascertain their state as part of their campaign schedule.

Mr Mbabazi also called on all Ugandans to complete the legacy of patriotism by ensuring a peaceful transition of power from President Museveni to another leader in the 2016 general election.
“Our message is Ugandans are sick and tired of violence. We are determined this time round, for the first time in the history of Uganda, to change leadership peacefully,” Mr Mbabazi told a rally at Oketkwer Primary School in Aromo Sub-county, Lira District, on Wednesday.

He amused the audience when he said Mr Museveni wants to remain in the presidential seat as “if there is gum holding him onto the chair”.
Since Independence in 1962, Uganda has changed government eight times but out of these, five have been by violent means.
Mr Mbabazi said if he is elected president on February 18, his government will introduce a special programme to uplift the war-ravaged northern region to the same development level with the rest of the country. The two-decade insurgency by various rebel groups left northern Uganda economically and socially devastated. Thousands of civilians were killed or abducted and women and girls raped or turned into sex slaves, while about 1.5 million people were internally displaced.

Responding to the effects of the war in 2007, the government started an affirmative rehabilitation programme for the northern region under the Peace Recovery and Development Plan.
“We want to be like our neighbours in Tanzania, Kenya and other African countries such as South Africa and the rest of the world where it is routine to change leaders peacefully,” Mbabazi said. To have his dream come true, Mr Mbabazi urged all people in Lango sub-region to vote him for the presidency.

“We would like to change our systems; we would like to have a government which depends on institutions, which depends on collective action by Ugandans and those employed by them to perform specific duties and tasks,” Mr Mbabazi responded.
He concluded his first leg of the four-day campaign trail in Lango sub-region on Thursday.

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