The Democratic Party (DP) has asked government to enact laws that allow it to regulate key sectors of the economy, instead of always “lamenting” as the public suffers at the hands of private entrepreneurs.
Addressing journalists at their weekly press conference on Tuesday, DP spokesperson Okoler Opio Lo Amanu critiqued government of not doing enough to control prices of services and goods in key sectors.
“One of such grave mistakes that the NRM government did was the liberalisation of the economy thus surrendering the administration of key sectors like health, education and transport to private individuals, this renders the government powerless,” Okoler said.
Okoler cited examples from the Prime Minister Robinah Nabbanja, who he said that only “laments” as Ugandans are charged exorbitantly to access health care, fuel among other key commodities.
“Recently, when hit by the furl crisis, the prime minister lamented and advised Ugandans to shun such petrol stations that sold fuel expensively as if people had an alternative, what sort of government is this that has no power to regulate the prices of commodities and services in the key sectors?” Okoler asked.
Okoler also brought out examples of when the government did nothing when private hospitals charged Ugandans expensively to treat Covid-19 at the peak of the second wave of the pandemic.
The DP mouthpiece said that government always wields a lot of power, and comes in full force to subdue political opponents, but does close to nothing to protect Ugandans against exploitation.
He said that if Ugandans are to be saved, government needs to act different.
