FDC: Oulanyah, Mutebile should be the last people to die out of Uganda

The Deputy Spokesperson for FDC, John Kikonyogo has advised the ruling government to increase its budget for health in order to have all Ugandans treated in the country rather than abroad.

Kikonyogo made the remarks on Monday while reacting to the deaths of former Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah and the Governor, Prof Tumusiime Mutebile who died recently in the United States and Kenya respectively.

According to Kikonyogo, if government could invest at least 15% of its budget in health, the issue of high ranked Ugandans dying outside the country while seeking better treatment could be avoided.

“Jacob oulanyah and the last Governor Mutebile should be the last people to die outside Uganda. This can be done by investing over 15% of our budget in Health. We need to train and facilitate our young doctors on how to manage these diseases that force us to take our senior leaders.” Kikonyogo said.

He noted that it doesn't make sense to treat the country’s senior leaders from abroad and ignore the ordinary people to die from here. He thus says, the death of Oulanyah should be a wake-up call for the government to improve on the state of health delivery in the country.

The FDC’s Deputy Spokesperson also challenged the government’s failure to retain doctors trained in Uganda and instead lose them to other countries.

“It hurts that we train our doctors here and donate them to hospitals in Kenya and South Africa. Only a fool can do that! To pay school fees for a child and give it away to the neighbours to offer services,” he complained.

Kikonyogo pointed out that if Uganda had better incentives, no doctor could be working outside the country.