Embattled UMA president Dr Oledo meets Museveni

Embattled president of Uganda Medical Association (UMA), Dr. Samuel Oledo has met President Yoweri Museveni weeks after his kneeling before the President stirred debate.

The meeting took place on Tuesday at State House, Nakasero where Oledo led a delegation of health workers.

The meeting comes days after the association executive voted Oledo out as their president accusing him of participating in partisan politics early this month.

Speaking on Tuesday after meeting Museveni, Oledo clarified that the meeting had been requested for before the saga within the association, to discuss with the President the issues of deployment of doctors, the recruitment of workers and to improve the health sector as a whole which is now ongoing in the country.

He explained that, being the rightful president of UMA, he sought to meet the President to represent and address issues facing the health workers in the country.

“I had requested for an invite earlier, to meet the fountain of honour on behalf of my people that I lead, on behalf of all health workers, to look at all those key issues of deployment; to discuss the issues of having them involved into; one, deployment, being recruited and also improving the health sector and also the those are key issues that we have to look at,” Oledo said.

Oledo added that during the ’successful’ meeting, they discussed about Museveni’s pledges towards the medical fraternity among other issues.

“Things like boosting the SACCO, the Shs4 billion. These are things that needed us to sit down with the fountain of honour to appreciate him and inform him of the milestones we are reaching,” Oledo said.

Furthermore, the president of the UMA called on the medical fraternity to render selfless service to wanainchi and avoid having the mindset of extorting money from patients as well as harassing them instead of applying the physio-social support needed by patients.

He also urged doctors and all health workers to surrender themselves to the profession they subscribe to.

“Surely let’s give ourselves to the profession we subscribe to,” he urged.

The meeting comes at a backdrop rift between Oledo and his fellow UMA executive members who accused him of having conducted himself in unprofessional manner when he knelt and asked Museveni to contest again in 2026.

However, Oledo would later defend his gesture, saying by endorsing Museveni’s candidature for the presidency, he was not representing a decision of UMA executive committee.

“ I represented a view I am convinced will build a strong UMA and putting it out there to cause the national debate that it has.” Oledo said earlier this month.

Earlier this week, doctors through a general meeting voted Dr.Oledo out of office as the UMA president for breaching the constitution of the association, and replaced him with his deputy Dr.Edith Nakku-Joloba.

However, Oledo has maintained that he is still the rightful leader of UMA because the court stayed his presidency.