Rubongoya: Why must prominent Ugandans die from abroad?

The National Unity Platform (NUP) secretary general, David Lewis Rubongoya has expressed concern over the  alarming rate at which prominent Ugandans are dying from medical facilities abroad.

Rubongoya said this year alone, Gen. Elly Tumwine, Gen. Pecos Kutesa, Prof. Emmanuel Mutebile and the former Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah are some prominent Ugandans who have died abroad, seeking better healthcare.

In a statement, Rubongoya suggested the government should think about this and what happens to millions of Ugandans who cannot even afford an air ticket to get treatment abroad.

In one of his Covid-19 speeches, President Museveni said the whole country had only 218 ICU beds, something Rubongoya said leaves the country at a crossroad.

Instead of building modern hospitals, Rubongoya claimed the government is very busy building modern prisons.

"We have fighter jets which come out on ceremonies every five years, but we probably have no single air ambulance. If it is there, it's a reserve of the few privileged,"he noted.

Instead of paying health workers better, he said the regime would rather pay off artistes to praise it and buy off political opponents to cross over in "ridiculous" fashion.

"They never boast of the big numbers of patients that can be accommodated in hospitals, but they speak in praise of their capacity to imprison thousands of citizens at any given time,"he said.

Sadly,he explained when one goes to Aga Khan Hospital and many other hospitals abroad, they are probably attended to by Ugandan trained doctors who left the country due to poor poor.

"They [doctors] simply left because of poor working conditions, the absence of equipment, and the lack of opportunities for growth. You can't ignore the common good for good,"he asserted.

He said no one is safe until all of us are safe and no one is free, until all of us are free.