Besigye, Miguna Miguna chide Museveni over statements on doctors

Ugandan opposition leader, Dr Kizza Besigye and Kenyan born Canadian lawyer Miguna Miguna have taken turns to admonish President Museveni for statements he made about Ugandan doctors.

Museveni during labour day celebrations in Ssembabule said that Ugandan doctors during their recent strikes behaved badly and unprofessionally, inciting him to consider hiring Cuban doctors.

“They started striking, incited other doctors and left our patients to die. They were blackmailing us. A doctor who goes on strike is not a doctor, he is an enemy of our people and we shall treat him as such. Infact I wanted to go back to the bush but I was restrained, “Museveni said.

“They are selfish people, we can not tolerate them, we fought for no pay for many years, when we got victory we were working for low pay, these soldiers have been fighting and working for either no pay or low pay, why do they never go on strike?” Museveni added.

However, in a quite ironic statement, Besigye, who was once Museveni’s physician hit back at the bushwar comrade saying that he should not blame doctors for being bad, but instead the system he has over seen for producing bad doctors.

Besigye said that instead of bringing Cuban doctors to replace bad Ugandan ones, it is better to bring Cuban leaders to replace their Ugandan counterparts who have failed the systems.

“The logical step is to bring Cuban leaders who produce the "good doctors" to replace Ugandan leaders that can't produce "good doctors" after 32 yrs in power!” Besigye said.

Miguna Miguna on his part referred to Museveni as another tyrant like Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta, calling the two lazy presidents without any creativity nor intelligence.

“The Ugandan Tyrant is synchronizing his message with his Kenyan counterpart, Tyrant Uhuru Kenyatta. No creativity, No intelligence. Just the same old and lazy African tin pot tyrants,” he said.

Early this month, the minister for public service, Muruli Mukasa announced that government had reached a deal to hire 200 Cuban doctors with the intent of filling the gap of inadequate medical specialists in the country. The Cuban doctors would then be deployed in regional referral hospitals where there is a shortage of specialists and paid Shs 5.4m each ($1500).

Consequently, medics under their umbrella body Uganda Medical Association and Ugandans at large scoffed at government over the decision saying it was not possible to achieve its desired target when a litany of issues have since not been resolved in the sector, especially remuneration for medical officers.