Mulago’s Dr.Baterana speaks out on arrest

Through his lawyers Mulago Hospital Executive Director, Dr.Byarugaba Baterana has spoken out on his arrest by the State House Health Monitoring Unit.

Baterana was arrested together with six other officials from Mulago and detained.

The State House Health Monitoring Unit director, Dr.Warren Namara on Wednesday told journalists that  Byarugaba’s arrest stems from the ongoing investigation into shs28.8 billion allegedly spent by the national referral hospital but unaccounted for.

Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Baterana’s lawyers led by Henry Kamagara from Kampala Associated Advocates  said the Mulago Executive Director was picked from office to record a statement only to be arrested and detained.

Commenting about the allegations of unaccounted funds, the lawyer said the Mulago hospital boss is not accountable to the State House Health Monitoring Unit.

“These are financial matters and as the Executive Director, Dr.Baterana  is only accountable to Public Accounts Committee of parliament, Ministry of Finance or Auditor General. We are therefore wondering why the State House Health Monitoring Unit team is arresting him over such matters yet he is not accountable to them,”Kamagara said.

Speaking about the arrest, the lawyer said that whereas the State House Health Monitoring Unit wrote to Dr.Baterana to provide them with some information ,he availed it to them.

“They later wrote a letter requesting him to appear at their office but he was given only one day which was not enough for him to prepare. We wrote back to them requesting for one week to be able to appear but they never responded until yesterday when they went and arrested him from office,” the lawyer said.

The State House Health Monitoring Unit director, Dr.Warren Namara had earlier on Wednesday said that efforts to ask Dr.Baterana to present himself to answer queries regarding the unaccounted shs28.8billion were futile until he was arrested on Tuesday.