The leader of People’s Front for Transition (PFT) Dr Kizza Besigye has asked the Uganda Medical Association (UMA) to get rid of Dr Samuel Odongo Oledo who he said had disgraced the medical profession.
Besigye’s call comes in the wake of Dr Oledo leading a group of medics to kneel before President Yoweri Museveni and ask him to continue running the country indefinitely.
Oledo, who is the president of UMA, on Saturday last week in the company of some doctors knelt down to thank Museveni for his ‘visionary leadership”. This was during the Patriotism for Youth and Investment Symposium that took at Kololo Independence Grounds.
Oledo among other issues said Museveni had done a great job in transforming Uganda’s health system as well as improving the welfare of medical workers.
Dr Oledo’s action displeased sections of the public including political leaders who charged he should have used the chance he got to meet the president to raise issues affecting doctors in the country.
Besigye said that a medical association like UMA should not be led by people like Oledo who put their personal interests head of the body that represents their profession.
“This Dr Oledo and his kneeling group will go down in history as a terrible disgrace to Uganda’s medical profession. Members of the profession must take urgent steps to cleanse the badly blotted image,“he advised.
Other medics who talked to The Nile Post on Sunday on condition of anonymity since they are not allowed to speak to the media, asked Oledo to resign and hand over the association to persons who are not tainted.
Dr Herbert Luswata, the secretary general at UMA told the Nile Post in an interview that the association is non-partisan and therefore does not participate in political activities of a partisan nature.
“We don’t agree with what he did to endorse the NRM national chairperson to run for election, this was a disgrace to the medical profession. Doctors are calling for the resignation of the president (Oledo) because we were not part of what he did, “said Luswata.
Luswata told the Nile Post that those who were paraded as doctors were medical students, adding that they are currently regretting the mistake they made by following the advice of Oledo who had his own motives.
“They are confessing that they are students and that is really very bad. As a profession it has really put us down. The current president attended the meeting in his personal capacity but not as UMA , “he said.
UMA brings together more than 7000 medical doctors in Uganda and the diaspora with the twin mission of welfare and professionalism of doctors in order to deliver quality health and healthcare to the population of Uganda. It operates under our 15 regional branches.
