PRESIDENT
MUSEVENI’S CORONA VIRUS DIRECTIVES MUST BE REVIEWED; Political Prisoners Must be Released , AND TAXES REDUCED
The corona virus has hit the headlines as the most
devastating epidemics of our times. Never in the history of the modern times
has an epidemic unsettled mankind and turned the world economy upside down like
the coronavirus.
The coronavirus may not be as menacing and painful as the
Ebola, Marburg or HIV virus, but it ability to spread the entire world in a
short period of time has made it the most dangerous epidemics of all time.
Therefore, this author recognizes the devastating effect of
the virus in all its destructive forms. So as a disclaimer, we pray that the
reader realizes that the intention of this article is rather a guidance-related
rather than a mere critique of the directives and safe guards given by
president Museveni.
It’s more of an offer for an alternative solution for our
country in these very hard times.
To an average person, therefore, president Museveni’s
Wednesday evening directives that resulted into the lockdown may look as the
best way out of the COVID-19 mess, but some of us feel that he should have done
better. We actually feel that he made a mess of it.
The Logic Behind
Look here; by the time the Ugandan government authorized a
lockdown to safe guard against the onslaught of the corona virus, the country
was proudly clear of any single case of the virus. No single person, either
Ugandan or not, had showed any signs of the COVID-19 disease in any part of the
country.
This calls for questions as to what prompted him to act in
the most haphazard manner. Why issue very harsh directives that have the effect
of paralyzing the economy?
Many NRM apologists argue that, since the neighboring
countries (Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania) had all suffered from cases of COVID -19
and had even issued crude lockdown measures, Uganda had to follow suit. I mean,
do we have to follow what everybody else does, even if the situation and
circumstances are different?
Different circumstances call for different solutions. Just
because Italy has lost 400 people in one day doesn’t mean Uganda will suffer
the same fate. Why do we have to panic?
Improper Population dis-engagement
When the Ugandan president went on to issue directives
including closure of all bars, churches, political rallies and schools, it
didn’t rhyme with the circumstance on the ground.
And even if it (the lock down) was the right thing to do, it
was not done in a proper manner.
The argument was that all sectors of high population
concentrations had to be disengaged.
And the immediate question therefore is: if the Ugandan president
was eagerly interested in human safety for all Ugandans why did’nt he look into
the fate of prisoners congested in prisons around the country?
Although it would be unthinkable to release hard core
criminals, a highly considerate president should have ordered for the release
of low level prisoners.
There are low caliber prisoners who committed lesser crimes
like traffic offenses, hawkers, petty theft, vagabonds, political prisoners who
are rotting away in Ugandan jails in very big numbers.
What does the Ugandan government lose if it released these
low level criminals, especially the political prisoners?
If you cross-checked, you will find that Ugandan jails have
the highest concentration rate of prisoners per average room in the world.
In fact precedence was set when the Iranian government
released over 8,500 political prisoners in the wake of the corona virus last
week.
The first line of Action
Since we had not registered a single case of the virus in
the country, the first line of action should have been to opt to country-wide
awareness about the necessary safety measures that are mostly educational like
it was done with HIV aids, Ebola and Marburg outbreaks.
-The awareness was supposed to be spread through constant
radio and television messages to alert the population about the do’s and don’ts
of the corona virus as a first precondition.
-Since the virus was known to be originating mostly from
abroad, we should have simply closed out borders. Nobody would have
blamed us for the decision. Then, we should have maintained a normal routine as
we monitor the situation.
President Museveni’s decision to close all schools and
educational institutions was not only poorly studied but was haphazard and
insensitive.
Although schools have a high concentration of the
population, they are also the easiest to control by instituting the standard
operating procedures (SOPs).
These SOPs may include the washing of hands, the use of
sanitizers the avoidance of hand shaking and hugs and so on.
The other advantage is that these educational institutions
operate like closed societies and therefore cannot be easily infiltrated by
foreigners with the virus. Why close them indeterminately and indiscriminately?
Candidate students would have remained at school
For instance; if it was considered essentially vital to
de-congest schools, government should have ordered for the release of all
students and spared those in candidate classes like primary seven, senior fours
and senior six candidates.
By doing that it would have allowed a more controlled
population of students to remain at school but guided strictly by the standard
operating procedures (SOP’s).
This is the same approach that would has been applied on
markets, super markets, hotels and should also have applied to bars-as a matter
of fact-as long as the congestion is manageable.
Of course we recognize that American president Donald Trump
ordered the closure of bars, hotels and other social gatherings of not more
than ten people. But the American president stands justified since his country
has been hit by the virus.
It is safe to assume that if the CODIV-19 disease had not
rocked the USA, then it’s inconceivable that president Trump would have issued
such harsh directives that threaten to sink the economy.
You can bet on the fact that if the American government was
in the Ugandan predicament (of not having a single case of the virus), it would
have simply closed its borders and monitored the situation accordingly without
effecting any restrictions on bars, hotels and other social gatherings.
Now that the NRM government has ordered for the lockdown,
what mitigating measures have they taken to safeguard people from bankruptcy?
The closed business in the bar sector, the educational
sector are renting and servicing loans. What will they do now with this total
shutdown of business?
The way forward:
- Government
should reconsider the closure of schools by allowing students of candidate
classes like P.7, S. 4, and S. 6 to return to school in one week.
- The
sectors affected by the lockdown must be given economic incentives like a
cut-down on interest rate on loans,incurred and other related subsidies like a cut on power tariff..
- Government
should suspend some taxes that are affecting the sectors affected by the
lockdown.
- In the event that two weeks elapse without any corona virus incident in uganda , then the lockdown must be suspended immediately..
By the way it’s not too late to revise the period of the
lockdown. Government can revise it to two or three weeks. Otherwise it would
look totally bizarre to continue in a lockdown when we have no case of single
victim of the corona virus.
The author, Fred Daka Kamwada is a veteran journalist
a blogger and social critic
