VIDEO: IGG remarks on drug shortage draw mixed reactions
IGG Beti Olive Namisango Kamya. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
- During a meeting with leaders of National Medical Stores (NMS) last Friday, Ms Beti Kamya said citizens should take the lead in fighting corruption because government officials are not victims of the vice.
Political leaders and other stakeholders have expressed mixed reactions towards remarks made by the Inspector General of Government (IGG) on the lack of medicines in hospitals and poor roads.
During a meeting with leaders of National Medical Stores (NMS) last Friday, Ms Beti Kamya said citizens should take the lead in fighting corruption because government officials are not victims of the vice.
“None of us (government officials) is going to die in Mulago [Hospital] because there is no medicine. I am telling you the truth. If there is no medicine, you will call the President and the President will put you on the plane and take you to America. We are not victims of corruption,” Ms Kamya said.
“You must know who the victim is and start fighting as victims. You who will die in hospital because you don’t have the option of going to Nairobi [for treatment],” she added.
The meeting with NMS comes amid persistent reports of shortages of medicines in health facilities across the country with some people accusing health workers of stealing the medicines.
Key government officials and legislators have been seeking medical care in hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya and other countries, with the money required to clear the medical bills coming from taxpayers.
Some have died while receiving treatment in foreign countries.
Dr Herbert Luswata, the secretary general of the Uganda Medical Association (UMA), said: “She (IGG) was being very honest because she knows what is happening in this country. They know they cannot get health services from our system because they have somehow abandoned it.”
Ms Allana Kembabazi, the programme manager for Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER), said the privileges of going out of the country for medical care should be reversed if Uganda wants to have the health system it needs.
“If the politicians are being mandated to use our Mulago [hospital], they would fix it. You saw how quickly they rushed to begin fixing it [the health system] when there were these travel bans [during Covid-19],” Ms Kembabazi told this newspaper.
The leader of National Unity Platform (NUP) platform, Mr Robert Kyagulanyi, said the IGG reminds the country that President Museveni’s “regime lacks the political will to fight corruption, simply because they benefit from it and are not affected by it!”
“She also agrees that her boss, Gen Museveni is the midwife of corruption because he ensures that the very corrupt do not experience the effects of corruption.”
Dr Luswata said the country has expertise but they only lack equipment and have a limited number of specialists recruited by the government to do the work.
BACKGROUND
Uganda, according to a report published by this newspaper in March last year, spends around Shs377 billion on treating key government officials abroad, every year. The money, some health experts say, is enough to build and equip specialised facilities for medical care.
