Travellers, faithful stuck after lockdown

Travellers and churchgoers remained stranded yesterday as the presidential directive on locking down two districts of Mubende and Kassanda, the epicentres of Ebola virus, began to bite.

President Museveni on Saturday imposed a 21-day lockdown on the above districts, a move aimed at containing the Ebola outbreak that has already claimed 19 lives in the country.

Some of the measures include a 7pm-6am curfew, ban on public, private transport and boda boda movement from Mubende and Kassanda districts, suspension of seasonal markets and gatherings at places of worship.

Several faithful, who turned up for prayers yesterday, found places of worship closed.
At Our Lady of Fatima Church in Mubende Municipality, the Church remained closed and people were seen scattered in clusters.

One of the faithful, Ms Mary Kabarongo from East Division, Mubende Municipality, said she was not aware that places of worship were closed.

“Nobody alerted us, not even our parish priest,” she claimed in a brief interview.

Other closed churches included Ebenezer Healing Temple in South Division, Mubende Municipality, Kirungi Church of Uganda (South) Division, and New life Centre Church in the West Division, Mubende Municipality.

At the bus stages, several travellers in Mubende Municipal Council were stuck with their cargo.
Ms Faith Natukunda, a resident of East Division in Mubende Municipality, whom we found at the Link Bus Company stage yesterday morning, said she was unable to send food items to her family in Kampala since buses were prohibited from making stopovers in Mubende.

“Management says the buses cannot stop in Mubende. Let the buses be allowed to make stopovers for only cargo purposes,” she said in an interview.

According to the presidential directive, transit vehicles (public and private) crossing through Mubende and Kassanda districts are permitted to move but with police clearance and shall not be allowed to stop to pick up people.

Cargo trucks with only a driver and one turn-boy shall be allowed to deliver goods and may carry goods out of the districts but shall not carry passengers.

Link Bus management clarified that  they would make arrangement for cargo transportation.
“We are law abiding and just receiving the cargo on behalf of our customers. The company will make separate arrangements on how the cargo gets to the different destinations outside the Mubende area,” one of the company employees receiving cargo explained to several other customers.

At sections of the central business area, the law enforcers led by police ran after boda boda riders and salon cars that were illegally carrying passengers in total breach of the directive, after dodging police checkpoints.

Boda boda riders that the Monitor interviewed yesterday claimed that the President had allowed transportation of passengers.

“We are surprised that the police are [impounding] our motorcycles yet the President allowed boda bodas to carry a single passenger,” Mr Simon Sserumaga, one of the boda boda riders, claimed.

But Ms Rosemary Byabashaija, the Mubende RDC, who is also the chairperson of the Mubende Ebola taskforce, in a telephone interview with Monitor yesterday, said the President banned congregating at places of public worship and boda boda transport.

“Our people are quick at creating their own guidelines for their own selfish ends. The churches are to remain closed. The President was very clear on why the churches and other public places should remain closed,” she said.

On boda bodas, Ms Byabashaija said: “The boda boda riders are just stubborn and should stop risking the lives of our people”.

The Mubende District security committee said the district would carry on with sensitisation programmes  to ensure that lockdown guidelines are adhered to. 
“We shall step up the campaign on public awareness,” she said.

Following the presidential directive, loud music from bars in Mubende Town went silent.

Uganda’s Ebola caseload had as of October 16 climbed to nearly 60 in just a month from the time the contagious disease was confirmed in Mubende, which Mr Museveni partially attributed to public transport.