Members of Parliament for Mubende District have asked President Museveni to come up with a better plan for locals before implementing tough restrictions despite the district registering a fifth health worker who has succumbed to Ebola.
The legislators made the petition while addressing journalists yesterday at Parliament. They want the ban on boda boda transport revised citing that boda bodas are vital to the livelihood of farmers, who need them to take produce to markets, and to school-goers, who need to travel to and from school.
Latest developments from the Ebola virus situation in Mubende indicate that a fifth health worker today succumbed to the virus.
The Mubende Resident District Commissioner (RDC) Rosemary Byabashaija confirmed the death, identifying the deceased as John Grace Walugembe who died late Sunday. He was a laboratory technician at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital and owner of Life Care Medical Clinic in Kirungi South Division in Mubende municipality.
“It’s too sad to lose such important people in the community,” Byabashaija said.
The MPs said they are in support of the restrictions, however, there’s a need to implement them in a way that will not traumatise the people because they are just recovering from back-to-back Covid-19 lockdowns.
Bashir Lubega Sempa, the MP of Mubende Municipality said that the President should consider allowing boda bodas to operate like they did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are operating a boda boda economy where the biggest population is using them for survival. Many farmers and market vendors in Mubende are outside the town and most of them use boda bodas to transport their produce to the market. These cannot afford private vehicles to transport their goods and produce to the market, so if you leave them open and close their means of transport, It is useless. President Museveni should reconsider the ban on boda bodas,” Lubega said.
William Museveni, the legislator of Buwekula South, asked the government and the Ministry of Education to come up with alternatives for transporting learners to schools in addition to allowing school buses.
For those whose businesses have been affected as a result of the lockdown, he asked the government to prepare a relief plan.
“During Covid-19, the government gave some cash to those whose businesses were affected by the lockdown. The President has imposed a 21-day lockdown on Mubende and Kassanda, how are those people going to survive?” Museveni asked.
According to Pascal Mbabazi, the MP of Buwekula County, motorcycles were impounded over the weekend following the President’s directive. He asked to have them released as many people were caught off guard by the restrictions.
“How can you start enforcing a directive immediately when you announce it? They were supposed to give people time to prepare. The government should thus release the vehicles and boda bodas they impounded on Saturday and we start afresh,” Mbabazi said.
It is suspected that Walugembe got in contact with a woman who died at his clinic showing symptoms of Ebola virus. The Mubende Ebola task force in collaboration with a health surveillance team closed the clinic on October 10, following the incident.
“We closed the clinic which had been attending to Ebola suspects after a woman died from that clinic bleeding from the mouth and nose on October 9, 2022,” Byabasaija said.
The following day, Walugembe was picked from the clinic and tested positive for Ebola. He was put on treatment at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital where he succumbed on Sunday evening.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) the chances of death after contracting the virus range from 25 percent and 90 per cent. This is higher than the fatality rate of the COVID-19 virus which stands at 3 per cent.
