Covid-19 fight: Activists say "devil has taken over the state"

Activists have claimed that "the devil has taken over the state," in the fight against Covid-19.

According to the activists, the duty of the governments is to protect the citizens' human rights (which are inherent), including freedom of worship which is not the case given some restrictions which were imposed on religious institutions.

The remarks were made during a town hall virtual meeting on the Covid-19 global responses under the topic: "What are the benefits and implications."

Speaking during the meeting, the former Leader of Opposition in the Parliament, Winnie Kiiza, said that the problem that Uganda is facing is politicians who want to use every opportunity for corruption, market themselves, and make themselves richer and richer at the expense of the masses.

"Covid-19 restrictions on places of worship is a continuation of the bizarre failed attempts to control worship in Uganda. Uganda in 2018, and 2019 has a history of religious bills which are discriminatory and overreaching. Resist," she said.

Kizza said politics has messed up everything to the extent that even the vaccinations that are being talked about, people are worried whether they should take them or not.

"I think the devil is in action here. We need to take a stand to unconditionally open places of worship. They closed churches but some areas are more congested / worse than churches. The devil has taken over the state," she said.

She explained that Ugandans were led to believe that locking down was noble to the extent that she led a team of MPs to sensitise the population.

Kiiza said at the beginning, Ugandans thought the politicians were doing everything for the good of the population.

She said the Covid-19 response was mismanaged and over politicised with all forms of violation of human rights.

“Covid-19 was used to clampdown on democracy and make the democracy lose meaning and up to now the population has given up on government. They don’t think they are doing whatever they are doing in good faith, ”she said.

Simon Ssenyonga, a human rights lawyer, said it is the duty of the governments to protect the citizens' human rights including freedom of worship.

"The president of Uganda is pushing for the removal of application for bail on treasonous offences. If challenging the clampdown on the freedom of worship is considered treasonous, would you remain silent?"Ssenyonga asked.

“States like Massachusetts [in the US] have acknowledged that worship places are essential and therefore there is no precondition before one can access them. Places of worship must resist the restrictions on human freedoms," Ssenyonga.

Emily Burns, Republican and Congressional Candidate for Massachusetts 4th Congressional district, said science, which is her primary field of expertise, is being abused to impose tyrannical rule with non-scientific mandates.

“There is no statistical significance between vaccinated and unvaccinated in outcomes of infection. If it is not going away {Covid-19}, are we going to keep religious institutions restricted forever?”queried Burns.