KAMPALA – The Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Betty Aol Ocan wants President Yoweri Museveni to relax a ban on mass distribution of relief food to save lives of vulnerable Ugandans who live on hand to mouth.
This was during a presser on Tuesday, March 31 at Parliament, in response to the President’s directive warning politicians against the distribution of food to crowds, something he said puts many on the risk of getting the virus. Terming it as “cheap popularity”, Museveni warned that anyone caught will be charged with attempted murder.
In response to the President’s remarks, Aol castigated the President for carrying out such drastic measures, saying the food distribution should be regulated, not banned.
“There are disabled people who can’t move to get food, at this time, they need charity. It isn’t cheap politics; it’s sharing the little you have with those who don’t have. Regulating the food distribution was better than saying cheap politics,” said Aol.
She also said some of the Measures like ban on private vehicles are impractical and called on the Ministry of Health to consider connecting with people so as to come up with practical measures.
She clarified that she wasn’t against the directives by the President but wanted clarification on some issues, and also called on The President to address economic sanctions like waiver of some taxes like OTT given the fact that some people are working from home.
Aol also appealed on the President to address issues of loan payment and rent, so as to ensure people aren’t evicted during the lockdown.
The leader of Opposition in Parliament Betty Aol Ocan wants President Yoweri Museveni to review his directive on the issuance of special passes to caretakers of people with health emergencies.
President Yoweri Museveni assigned the office of the Resident District Commissioners (RDCs) the role of granting special passes to caretakers of people with some unavoidable health issues like expectant mothers and very sick people to use private transport which was banned for 14 days.
However, Ocan says the RDC will be overwhelmed since there may be many emergency health cases hence the role should be re-assigned to the district Coronavirus task force.
