The Lord Mayor of Kampala Capital City Erias Lukwago has punched holes in President Yoweri Museveni’s Friday night address on Covid-19.
Following the expiration of the 42 days of lockdown, the President yesterday addressed Ugandans on the way forward where he partially opened up some sectors of the economy.
Museveni among others allowed Kikuubo, malls, arcades, public transport, boda bodas to resume business while strictly following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
He on the other hand, kept schools, places of worship closed saying that they will only be opened after finding a sustainable solution that can limit the spread of the virus such as mass vaccination.
However, to Lukwago, the President’s speech had a lot of loopholes that it left many imponderables lingering his mind.
Lukwago said;
As many of you are gathering pieces to get back on your feet and resume business, albeit with a multitude of challenges, there are lots of imponderables lingering on my mind;
1) How the Kikuubo Lane, hitherto the county’s main commercial hub, is going to be turned into an exclusively wholesale and “petty-trader-free” zone.
2) The Country’s capacity to vaccinate the over 15 million learners before opening the schools.
3) Even when schools eventually re-open and a mechanism is worked out for the two sets of learners in each class study in shifts, the capacity of the struggling tertiary institutions to accommodate all the learners who will be progressing at a go.
4) The Landlord-tenant issues, especially in arcades and malls, which were never addressed in the new proclamation .
5) The chocking tax tarriffs which have not been revised in the wake of the prevailing crisis and the high cost of capital investment. Note that the Bank rate was reduced to 6.5% but the commercial bank rate was never revised down.
6) What of a comprehensive economic recovery program and interventions to resuscitate the collapsing economy?
7) The capacity of the law enforcement agencies to police the entire country to ensure that only 20 people attend burials, Boboda carry only one passenger, taxis and buses operate at half capacity, bars and saunas don’t operate, curfew at 7pm etc.
8) Oba what crime did our musicians commit?.
9) Why are these measures, well intentioned as they may be, never discussed in parliament as required under constitution before being rolledout?
10) etc
Anyway, let’s keep our hopes alive and keep safe.
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