Buganda Katikkiro warns Public against Social Media Covid-19 misleading information

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Katikkiro Charles Peter Mayiga

In December 2019, information started to filter through concerning a lethal virus that was ravaging China. It was later confirmed that it was the Coronavirus, causing Covid-19, on rampage.  As the virus spread to other continents and caused untold devastation, coupled with the lack of cure and vaccine, panic set in leading to all sorts of information circulating on social media from those claiming to have found a remedy to this pandemic.

This misinformation has reached alarming levels to the extent that the World Health Organisation has referred to it as a massive infodemic.

In Uganda the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed on March 21, 2020. This was a 36 year old male returning from Dubai.  Although Uganda is yet to register a Covid-19 death, the country has not been spared the infodemic.

It was in this respect that the Katikkiro came out with a stern warning to the public against the social media videos and messages with claims of cures from sources as obscure as the virus itself.

Speaking from his home in Lweza on April 20, Charles Peter Mayiga pointed out that Uganda has highly competent doctors whose advice about the Coronavirus is enough to guide the country through this crisis.

“The minister of Health Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng, the Permanent Secretary Dr. Diana Atwine, Dr. Kabanda and the team they lead are very competent doctors who are working round the clock to bring the virus under control and finally defeat it.

You must stop referring to those videos on social media from people claiming to be doctors from Nigeria and America. Who in the first place is sure that those are doctors? Some of those people are just conmen.”

The Katikkiro is the political head of the Buganda kingdom and the Kabaka’s right hand man. He is held in high esteem and enjoys countrywide respect. He is a lawyer by profession and is also regarded as one of the best legal brains in the country. As a member of the Roman Catholic Church, he enjoys close ties with the Church’s leadership.

Mayiga also praised the health officials for the regular updating of the country on the state of affairs concerning the Coronavirus. He stressed that the fact that there was no Covid-19 death so far registered in Uganda is testimony to the expertise of the doctors.

Mayiga urged the public to be contented with the information that the health officials are giving. He warned that people on social media claiming to have got cured of Covid-19 by taking a host of cocktails must not be taken by anyone who values his life and that of others.

“We have doctors here who have treated our own and cured them of Covid-19. You know these doctors; they talk to you and advise you on what to do. Simply follow their advice and things will work out successfully. What else do you want? ”

With the country’s resources and attention directed toward the Coronavirus, some government officials are taking advantage of the crisis to grab property in the areas under their administration.

Mayiga singled out Kabuye the Resident District Commissioner (RDC) of Ssembabule who he accused of blocking the kingdom’s leadership from stopping people illegally constructing houses on the kingdom land in Mawogola.

“It is only those who steal our land and move it to DR Congo who are out of our reach. But  if you steal our land but do not move it to another country, rest assured that we shall recover it from you no matter when,” he said calling on government to reign in on its officers.

“In 1962 Obote grabbed our land but we managed to recover it. Stealing land is not the same as stealing money; when a person steals money he can easily disappear with it without trace. Even the Palestinians will at one time recover their land that has been forcefully stolen from them.”

RDCs are the president’s representatives in the districts and are in charge of security. Land-grabbing in Uganda has become the order of the day and government officials are always behind these atrocities.

It is puzzling to see soldiers disobeying the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, the President, and no action is taken! The government and security officials supposed to enforce the lockdown are the ones abusing it turning it into an opportunity to gather obscene wealth.

As a result, many families have become homeless leading to food insecurity and hunger. Most hit are the rural areas which are also the hubs of the country’s agricultural activity.  

With agriculture as the backbone of the economy, land-grabbing has led to the drowning of many peasant farmers into levels of poverty previously unheard of in a country with the potential of being the food basket of the region.

In a bid to save Buganda and the whole country from the shame of becoming a basket case, the Katikkiro embarked on an ambitious project to revive agricultural productivity and force poverty out of homesteads.

The project named Buganda ku ntikko- Buganda at the helm- has been embraced by the young and old and is already bearing fruit. It has brought about the revving of commercial farming under the “mmwanyi terimba” drive. This is a phrase meaning that coffee is profitable. The production of food and rearing of animals has also been stepped up. The greatest setback to this well thought out and well implemented project are the mass displacements resulting from land-grabbing.

  The failure of many Ugandans to provide food for their families during the Coronavirus lockdown is partly due to these mass displacements that have impacted on production and led to the precarious situation of living from hand to mouth.

Whether the lockdown ends soon or not, the consequences of the Coronavirus crisis will inevitably hit hard the country due to such injustices meted out on the public by the very people supposed to steer it to recover and rise again.

2400 Ugandans are being Hunted Down to be put Under Institutional Quarantine

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Health Minister Dr. Jane Ruth Aceng

The Minister of Health has revealed that 2400 people are being tracked down to be put under institutional quarantine.  This group is said to have had contact with the 660 contacts that are for follow up.

The minister, Dr. Jane Ruth Acheng said this during the Presidential address to the nation on the state of the Covid-19 on April 3, 2020.

Dr. Acheng told the country that of the 48 people so far affected, nine were got at Entebe international airport and that they did not have the opportunity to interact with the public. But that thirteen of those infected had the opportunity to interact with the public.

“We also have to trace those who had contact with the 660. That is what we are going to do during the fourteen days of lockdown.”

The minister further said that 95% of those who tested positive with the Coronavirus were returnees from countries like the United Arab Emirates, USA, United Kingdom and Afghanistan.

According to health experts, if you get a case that is not on the list being traced, it means that the virus is ahead of you.

On his part the President, Yoweri Museveni, thanked Ugandans for responding positively to the order of dispersing human congestion. He commended the Police, Uganda Peoples Defence Forces and the Local Defence Units for implementing the directives.

Museveni however lashed out at the LDUs who have been accused by the public for committing atrocities including shooting people dead, caning and extortion. He called them pigs and threatened to deal with them the way he used to do during the guerrilla war that catapulted him to state power.

Those who took part in the five-year guerrilla war revealed that whoever went against the set standards would be told to dig a rectangular hole, stand in it and would be hit on the head with a hoe.

“They must stop or we shall deal with them harshly.”

Museveni also sounded a warning to the Crime Preventers for interfering with the security arrangements in place. He told them not to “self-deploy themselves” and to stop forthwith. Crime Preventers are the National Resistance Movement (NRM) cadres given military training and are placed in communities on the pretext of fighting crime. Opposition politicians have always accused the NRM, the ruling party, of using these people to intimidate political opponents and rig elections.

The President made clarifications about his earlier directives after complaints indicated that security officials were entering people’s compounds and cane them during the curfew time which starts at 7.00 pm and ends at 6.00 am.

“I told people to stay at home during curfew and this means they can be in their houses, be on their verandahs or in the compound.

 

President Yoweri Museveni  PPU Photo

“The markets that are not following the distancing directives are committing suicide and will be closed immediately.”

On the issue of misleading information being put to the public with claims of having cure to the Coronavirus, the President ordered the Minister for Information, National Guidance and IT to close those media houses immediately.

Museveni assured Ugandans that Covid-19 can easily be defeated if people keep distance from one another, and more especially keep away from those with cough and flu. He told those having cough to stay at home, self isolate and seek medical attention,  He added that people must keep washing their hands with soap and use sanitisers.  He also advised people to avoid touching their eyes, mouth and nose as they are soft places through which the Coronavirus can be acquired.

The minister of trade and industry, Amelia Kyambadde, said that her ministry has cleared eleven factories to produce sanitisers and that fourteen are on the way.

“Covid-19 has taught us that slavery of depending on foreign manufacturers must stop. We have the raw materials like sugar, electricity, maize and bananas,” said Museveni.

The President was quite right on this but probably he should have talked about the medical facilities in Uganda as well. Uganda’s health system could be among the worst in the world and this has been largely due to the fact that when the powers- that -be fall sick, or their families and cronies, they fly to the first world hospitals.

At one time, President Museveni flew his daughter to Germany to give birth. The President justified this on the pretext that he values security more than anything else.

In the post Covid-19 era, Ugandans and the other African countries should expect better health facilities, constructed and maintained to cater for the powers- that-be as well.

The Permanent Secretary (PS) Dr. Diana Atwine said that 10% of the health equipment needed in the struggle against Covid-19 will be manufactured locally.

Other anti Coronavirus measures in place include the closure of all non food-selling shops, staying at home of non essential staff, closing down of schools, places of worship, banning of public and private cars and bars as well as night clubs.

All government vehicles were handed over to the district health officer to help in the transferring of all categories of patients to health facilities. Each district put in place a Covid-19 task force to respond to the pandemic.

President Museveni asked the investors and other well-to-do Ugandans to donate brand new 4WD vehicles to enable each district have at least ten such vehicles to effectively respond to the pandemic.

Health PS says Ministry to Recruit 220 Health Workers

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

Health workers in Italy putting on protective gear as they attend to Corid-19 patients. AFP Photo

The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health has said that a recruitment drive for 220 health workers, at different levels, is under way.

Dr. Diana Atwine made the revelation during a press conference on April 2^nd, 2020. She said that the health workers are needed to beef up the Covid-19 Response Team of the ministry.

“Already health officials from the Uganda Peoples Defence Forces- UPDF, at different levels, have joined the ministry.”

The PS added that the move is a response to the planning team that is trying to ready itself for any eventuality should the Covid-19 crisis get to alarming levels.

Dr. Atwine called on the public to cheer up; assuring the country that these dark moments will clear up soon. She urged people to engage in some physical exercises and to help the young ones to make sense out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Doctors in Uganda are poorly paid and this has led to the search of greener pastures to neighbourng countries like Rwanda that pays far more than Uganda, Other doctors are working in Kenya, South Africa and in the world’s developed nations.

It remains to be seen whether, during this critical time, the officials of the medical profession will be spared the humiliation of having to remind their employers to improve their working conditions and offer them a salary befitting the tasks before them.

COVID-19 Prevention Tips for Journalists

by Valerian Kkonde

PEARL NEWS SERVICE

On March 18^th President Museveni made first national address on the Coronavirus. Among the measures taken was the closure of all schools and ordering students to return home on Friday 20th.  All public gatherings were banned including religious, political and cultural. Bars and night clubs were banned forthwith. By this time Uganda had not registered any case. All measures taken were said to last up to April 19^th, 2020.

On Saturday March 21^st the first Covid-19 case was registered in Uganda. By April 1^st, Uganda had 44 patients confirmed with the virus. All nonessential work had been stopped and private means of transport had also been banned. A curfew starting at 7:00 pm was also instituted starting on the March 31st. These measures are to stay in place for fourteen days.

Journalism, as a public service, continues to keep the public informed on all taking place about the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other issues. Although this is the case, journalists have to ensure their own safety.  Journalists in Uganda work under very distressing conditions on top of getting meager pay.

Safety tips recommended by the International Journalist Network include:

• Work from home if you can
• In the newsroom, clean your work station every day with at least 70% alcohol
• Wash your hands regularly for at least 20 seconds
• Conduct in-person interviews only if necessary
• Keep a distance of at least three to six feet from interviewees
• Use two microphones and sanitize them with alcohol and disposable towels
• Clean all equipment with alcohol
• Send teams of no more than two people 
• Opt for places with low foot traffic
• Wear a surgical mask when interviewing random people on the streets and discard it immediately after.